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Rahul slips out of crowd to stay at tribal hamlet

BERHAMPUR: Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi slipped out of the crowd of his party men to spend Sunday night at a tribal village, Tamana in Ganjam district.

He also spent three hours at a residential school for tribals at Kankia before reaching Tamana.

This seemingly unscheduled visit caused much discomfort for the local Congress leaders and lower rung personnel of the State police deployed for his security. Mr Gandhi was in the city on Sunday to attend a farmers and youth rally in the afternoon.

After the rally he was rushed to a beach resort at Gopalpur, where the State Congress unit had planned his night stay. After holding discussions with some NGO representatives and Congress leaders at the beach resort Mr Gandhi went out on the unscheduled outing for the night, said Congress leader Pitabas Panda.

But his visit to Kankia and Tamana was not unscheduled although it was not in his programme schedule. . Since Sunday noon much before Berhampur rally, the SPG and Central intelligence personnel had visited these villages to check out the security in and around them.

Mr Gandhi reached the residential school for tribals at Kankia established and managed by the NGO, Gramvikas at around 9 pm.

He stayed at the school for around three hours interacting with the 417 children living there. They were first generation literates of their families. It may be noted that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has funded a library at this residential school. He reached Tamana at around midnight and had his dinner with the tribals of the village.

This model tribal village of 82 tribal families has been adopted by the Gramvikas. It has been in news in the past for total sanitation and total prohibition. Mr Gandhi interacted with the tribals about their success stories of community participation. He spent the night at a room at the village. He woke up early to depart from the village at 6 am to complete the last leg of his ‘Discover India’ tour in Orissa.

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