Tying red clothes on their heads and holding red flags in their hands, thousands of tribals congregated at Narayanpatana and took out a rally to Rambhari. Dancing to their traditional tunes, they covered around 8 km distance.
“I have urged many times to the government officials to come and hear the problems of the poor tribals. But no one turned up and tried to solve the issues of Narayanpatana and Bandhugaon”, President Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha Nachika Linga said.
Mounting a scathing attack on the district administration, Linga alleged that it is (administration) not paying any heed to the problems of the tribals.
Linga, who was leading the rally, was in the most-wanted list of Narayanpatana police station for his involvement in police station attack on November 20, 2009.
Exhorting the administration to solve all issues through dialogue, he complained that it is not visiting the interior areas of the district and doesn’t take steps to solve land-related disputes.
“We hope the Orissa government will release the leaders of ‘Chasi Mulia Jana Andolan’ and withdraw all the false cases registered against them. It must solve the land disputes here and call Nachika Linga to the capital as a democratic leader to hold talks”, said Prafulla Samantara, president, Lokasakti Abhiyan.
However, the district administration has denied all the charges and accused the outfit of not cooperating in the developmental works.
“All issues can be solved through dialogue and it will be inappropriate to allege that the administration is not paying heed while blocking the developmental work”, Koraput Collector Rajesh Prabhakar Patil said.