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Centre favours CBI probe into Orissa violence

Special Correspondent

“Senseless destruction by individuals belonging to a particular organisation shall not be tolerated”

— Photo: PTI

IN AGONY: Victims of violence at a relief camp at Raikia in Kandhamal on Friday.

NEW DELHI: The Union government favours a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the communal violence in Orissa, Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said here on Friday.

“We would have liked ideally that this matter be handed over to the CBI as there was a need to render justice immediately. Judicial probes, on the other hand, take a long time,” he said when asked whether the Orissa issue came up for discussion at the Cabinet meeting.

PM’s assurance

As per law, it was for the State government to recommend a CBI probe. The Prime Minister spoke to Orissa Chief Minister and Governor and assured them that the Centre would provide all assistance to restore normality, he said.

Describing the communal violence as a matter of grave concern, Mr. Sibal said: “We have been a tolerant society. This kind of senseless destruction by individuals belonging to a particular organisation shall not be tolerated.”

He asserted that the Centre was committed to secularism. “There shall be no dilution in that commitment.”

It was worrisome that over 2,000 houses were destroyed in the continuing violence, he said.

Advisory to Orissa

The Centre on Friday sent an advisory to the Orissa government, asking it to take swift and strict measures to bring the law and order situation in the communal violence-hit Kandhamal district under control.

Taking a serious view of the situation there, Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta spoke to the State Chief Secretary and sought to know what measures the government was taking to put down the violence and deal strictly with the perpetrators.

Mr. Gupta asked the government to make use of Central paramilitary forces, already deployed in the State.

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