Tribals observe 18th anniversary of Kalinga Nagar firing incident
BY AKSHYA ROUT
Jajpur, JAN 2 : Large numbers of tribal people on Tuesday observed ‘Black Day’ on the occasion of the killing of 14 innocent tribals 18 years back in Ambagadia village near the Kalingnagar steel hub in Jajpur district .
The police gunned down 14 tribal people including three women on 2nd January 2006 while tribals were protesting against the construction of the boundary of Tata’ s steel plant project.
Large numbers of slogan-shouting tribals including many women and others took out a procession from Champakoila to Ambagadia and held a meeting at the martyrs’ tower.
Addressing the meeting Rabindra Jaraka the secretary of Bisthapan Birodhi Jana Mancha (BBJM ) said “ The government had not so far explained the reason behind the firing. The State government is only too keen to sign MoUs with the big corporate houses and to practically give away the best deposits of iron ore as captive mines at a mere amount of royalty . The TATA built the steel plant over the dead bodies of tribal people”.
Jaraka also criticized the decision of the state cabinet accepting the report of the Inquiry Commission on Kalinga Nagar firing . “ In the report , the inquiry commission has not blamed the police for the killing of 14 tribal people for which we totally rejected the report of the commission”, added Rabindra Jaraka .Six chopped palms of Kalinganagar victims have been waiting for decent cremation for 18 years . The doctors of the government hospital in Jajpur had chopped off the palms of six of the bodies on 2nd January 2006. Now the family members of deceased need the chopped palms for decent cremation for which the government should return to them the chopped hands of their relatives”, added Jarak
The meeting was also addressed by Managobinda Besra the leader of Adivasi Mahasabha , Abdul Wali the president of the state unit of Republican Party of India , Soni Soni , CPIML leader Bhanuchandra Sarangi and others.
” Security has been tightened in Kalinganagar and its nearby areas on Monday to prevent any untoward incident .The memorial meeting was peaceful with no report of untoward incident , ” said Nabakrushna Jena, the additional district magistrate of police in Kalinganagar.
