Talks between Navin government and tribal forum fail

Road blockade to continue until cases against tribals withdrawn: Tribal leader

By Nalini Sahu

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 31: The much awaited talks between the Orissa government and the Bisthapan Virodhi Janamach on Wednesday failed to produce any concrete results as both the sides did not make any clear commitments to resolve the one-year-old deadlock at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district.

Although representatives of Orissa government and Bisthapan Virodhi Janamanch met here in the morning to discuss about road the blockade at Kalinga Nagar, they refused to budge from their original positions.

The Janamach, which has been spearheading the blockade of national highway 200 at Kalinga Nagar in protest against the killing of 13 tribals in police firing on January 2, 2006, reiterated its demand for withdrawal of all cases filed against the local tribal protestors. Besides, it also demanded return of palms of the police firing victims.

As per the practice, the doctors had chopped off the palms of the victims as their identity could not be established during post-mortem.

The 15-member Janmanch delegation headed by its leader Rabindra Jarika sought a written commitment from the government on their demands. However, chief minister Navin Patnaik, who presiding over the meeting did not make a clear stand on the demand, although he said the government was "open" to consider the demand.

Although both Mr Jarika and Mr Patnaik told the reporters that the discussion was "positive," sources said the state government has opposed to give any written commitments.

Apparently frustrated over the government's attitude, the Janmanch leader Mr Jarika told the reporters that the road blockade would continue till the government reviewed and withdrew the cases registered against the tribals and the chopped off palms of the tribals were returned to their families.

The officials, who along side the chief minister Mr Patnaik attended the meeting, apprised the Janmanch leaders about the Orissa High Court's order directing the government to lift the road blockade and said that everyone had to obey the court's directions.

Mr Jarika, however, observed that the court was kept in the dark before it passed the orders. "We cannot obey any order if it affected our life and livelihoods," he said, while clarifying that the tribals have been allowing passenger vehicles on the highway since a long time.

The Janmanch leader said the opposition against the Tata Steel project would continue. The government should prevent anyone from the company to enter the proposed site of the project till the crisis was fully resolved, he added.

It may be recalled that in the last meeting between the government and the Janmanch leaders held in May last year, the authorities had also assured to review the cases registered against the tribals, but nothing much had been done so far.

As regards returning of the chopped off palms, the authorities had failed to hand over the same after the tribals expressed doubts over the genuineness of the palms.

In the Wednesday's meeting, it has been decided that the limbs would be return after forensic testing.

Rajasthan police arrives in Orissa to interrogate Bitti's father

By Binita Jaiswal

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 31: A three-member senior police official team from Rajasthan reached Cuttack on Wednesday and submitted papers in Orissa High Court relating to the alleged hands of senior police officer B.B. Mohanty in the disappearance of his rape convict son Bitti Hotra Mohanty.

Bitti, son of director general (home guards and fire service) B.B. Mohanty, has been missing ever since jumping his 14-day parole in December 4.

Jaipur additional superintendent of police Rajesh Singh accompanied by two senior officers went to the advocate general's office in the high court premises and discussed about the case with senior government lawyers.

The Rajasthan police team is said to be staying in Cuttack till February 5. During it stay, the team, sources said, will interrogate Bitti's father and psychiatrist Gopal Mohapatra, a Cuttack-based doctor, who treated the convict during his parole.

The Lalkothi police station had sent the first legal notice to Mr Mohanty on January 22 asking him to personally report on January 27. Then it sent the second notice asking him to appear by January 31 in connection with the disappearance of his son Biti, who jumped parole last month after being convicted in the German woman rape case.

Rajasthan's Lalkothi police station has registered a case against Mohanty senior on January 10 accusing him of helping his son Biti to flee on parole and evade re-arrest. To avoid arrest, the DGP Mr Mohanty went to high court and obtained an anticipatory bail from til Februay 5.

Meanwhile, the DGP's advocate Debashis Panda on Wednesday said the Rajasthan police had no right to summon his client as he did not live under the jurisdiction of Lalkothi police station. He also denied that there was any possibility of Mr Mohanty appearing before the Lalkothi police.

"Orissa loves you all, who cares for a mad man?"

RATIKANT MOHANTY


Bhubaneswar, Jan. 23: A day after a frenzied political activist man-handled Team India coach Greg Chappell bringing Orissa one of its rarest moments of embarrassment, hundreds of cricket lovers on Tuesday queued up on the streets of Bhubaneswar to cheer their beloved cricketers and coach when they were on their way to Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University.

The large crowd of over ten thousand people, including women and children, were seen standing for hours with bouquets in their hands on the 10-km Jayadev Vihar-Chandaka road to have a glance of the players and coach Greg Chappell.

Although the enthusiastic crowd could not personally hand over the bouquets, they sent nearly a truckload of flowers to the hotel where the players are staying.

In the busy Bapuji Nagar area, a zealous crowd of young men and women nearly jostled to see R.P. Singh and Ramesh Power who launched a Reebok India outlet there. Both the players freely interacted with the customers and gave autographs to the fans standing in the queue outside the showroom.

A group of boys were heard saying, "Orissa love you all, who cares for a mad man?" obviously disapproving the Monday's attack on coach Greg Chappell by a Kalinga Sena activist.

In KIIT University, as it appeared, the players and the coach had forgotten the unpleasant incident that happened at the Biju Patnaik airport here.They were seen freely interacting with the students and delightfully sipping green coconut water.

Coach Mr Chappell was all smiles when he was honoured by the University.
Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were seen sitting together and sharing some lighter moments.

In Puri, noted sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik created a 21-feet art piece welcoming coach Greg Chappel and Team India . He also wished best of the luck to the Indian players for the Wednesday's encounter with West Indies.

Orissa panchayat polls

Six decided, BJD-BJP discuss to reach consensus on 24 more districts

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo


Bhubaneswar, Jan. 9: Having experienced the bitter taste of defeat at several places during the last panchayat polls, the BJD and BJP in Orissa have decided to fight together the coming polls.

Both the parties – which share power in the state – have agreed to jointly contest elections in at least six of the total 30 districts. Further discussion is on between the leaders of the two parties to forge alliance in some more districts.

The Opposition Congress and Orissa Gana Parishad are also exploring possibilities to fight the elections together.

Hectic parleys and conferences continued here on Tuesday between the BJD and BJP leaders as well as Congress and Orissa Gana Parishad leaders to give complete shapes to their seat-sharing arrangements. However, no concrete picture emerged by the evening.

The six districts on which the BJD and BJP have managed to reach an understanding include Sundergarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Boudh Sonepur and Balasore.

BJD president Navin Patnaik and state BJP chief Suresh Pujari said on Tuesday that they were hopeful of forging an alliance in some more districts.

On Monday, the BJD-BJP coordination committee decided on six districts following reports from their respective district-level leaders and committees. Several ministers from both parties attended the coordination committee meeting which was the second such exercise today.

In some districts, there were serious differences between the ruling combine leaders and at many places the BJD leaders were keen on going it alone.

In the last panchayat polls, Congress revived its position as the BJD and BJP went to polls separately and finished the second, next to the BJD. The BJP was pushed to third position.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties here have demanded that Kendrapara collector Kasinath Sahoo be relieved of the responsibility of conducting three-tier panchayat polls alleging that he was working as an "agent" of the ruling parties.

"There is going to be a repeat of 2004 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls when government machineries had bowed to ruling parties' decree and officials left no stone unturned to ensure the victory of BJD-BJP combine. The Election Commission had removed the then collector Hemant Sharma for partisan stand," said Orissa Gana Parishad president Bijoy Mohapatra.