Indus Valley Times

By Sushant Dalai

BHUBANESWAR, APRIL 13: The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has issued an arrest warrant against Odisha’s Keonjhar district collector Ashish Thakre for ‘absconding’  and failing to appear before the statutory body despite repeated summons.

The Collector has earned the ire of the statutory body after he failed to appear for the commission’s hearing in Bhubaneswar on April 4 this year.

The commission since September 2021 had been issuing several summons to the Collector to attend the hearing. But the Collector did not respond. The NCST Tuesday shot off a letter to Odisha director general of police (DGP) Sunil Bansal to arrest the errant Collector and produce him before the Commission’s office in New Delhi.

As per the NCST’s letter, the statutory body for the tribals, set up as per Article 338 A of the Constitution, had summoned Keonjhar collector in a matter of non-payment of compensations and employment benefits to Dara Singh Khutia under land acquisition by the ISLF Ltd. The petitioner has been a resident of Lahanda village in Keonjhar district.

The NCST had issued four summons to the DM to present in person during the hearing on the matter. The Commission even asked the DM to appear before the body’s hearing at Bhubaneswar on April 4 to which he also did not respond.

Following non-appearance before the statutory body on April 4, the NCST invoking the powers of the civil court vested on it under clause (8) of Article 338 A issued an arrest warrant Tuesday. The commission has asked the State DGP to arrest Thakre by Wednesday 11 am.