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’Allow leaders to visit Kandhamal’

BHUBANESWAR: Opposition Congress on Sunday demanded that the State Government should allow leaders of various political parties and elected representatives to visit violence-hit district to work for restoration of peace in the region.

The party leaders, who were members of a party fact-finding committee that was on Saturday prevented from entering Kandhamal district on Saturday, said the politicians from all parties should be allowed to reach the violence-affected areas to extend their support to the administration in restoring peace.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had failed in his duty to involve the leaders of other political parties in the process of restoration of peace in Kandhamal, the leaders charged at a joint press conference at the party’s State headquarters here.

The leaders further criticised the Naveen Patnaik Government for adopting a one-sided approach in dealing with the law and order situation in Kandhamal. “The denial of entry into Kandhamal to us is unjustified,” said former Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal.

He and other members of the team had to return from Sorada in Ganjam district from where they were refused entry into Kandhamal district by senior administration officials.

Mr. Biswal, who headed the fact-finding team, demanded that the State government should convene an all-party meet without delay to discuss the issues pertaining to social and communal conflicts prevailing in Kandhamal district.

On the basis of their interaction with the people from Kandhamal, who had come and taken shelter at a relief camp in Sorada after the violence, Mr. Biswal and former Union Minister Srikanta Jena alleged that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists had added a clear communal dimension to the agitation of the Kui tribals of the district by attacking Christian institutions.

Criticising the Kandhamal district administration and the State Government for their failure to consider the grievances of the agitating tribals before the violence occurred, the leaders held the government responsible for the communal violence in the district.

They said that the party would decide on the next course of action with regard to the denial of their entry into Kandhamal district.

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