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‘Indiscriminate’ arrest of NGO activists flayed

BHUBANESWAR: Civil society groups have expressed concern over "indiscriminate" picking up of their workers by police after "branding" them members of naxalite organisations. The growing discontentment came to the fore when three employees of Keonjhar-based non-government organisation (NGO) ’Keonjhar Integrated Rural Development and Training Institute’ (KIRDTI) were arrested by the police and booked on charges of alleged links with extremist groups. Speaking at a State-level discourse on Government Organisations-NGO Co-ordination for further civil society action in Orissa, activists condemned the arrest saying, "the action is uncalled for. The organisation has been working in Keonjhar district for last two decades and different government organisations have acknowledged their work.""A young girl who was picked up by the Keonjhar police had mobilized tribal women and helped forest department seize logs worth over Rs. 2.5 lakh before. The local police didn’t possess any kind of evidence of their links with extremists group," said Dhirendra Panda, a prominent NGO worker who was in the fact-finding team that interacted with district officials over the arrest. He said, "when an organisation filed about 155 cases with revenue department for restoration of tribal land, how can one assume it to be extremist group? They have all along followed legal procedures, which is not generally seen among naxalites." "We have already taken exception to the arrest by police. The law-enforcing agency is not coming forward with the evidence on its claim. We have approached State Human Rights Commission on this police atrocity," KIRDTI Secretary Duskar Barik said. He said it was for their effort that residents of 80 remote villages of Keonjhar district were actively participating in the protection of ecology and biodiversity from illegal felling and smuggling of logs. KIRDTI had produced a long list of its past cooperation with district administration but police overlooked and picked up their workers, activists said. Mr. Panda said NGOs would soon take up the matter at the highest level and build up public opinion about it.

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