Tribals observe 17th anniversary of Kalinga Nagar firing incident

By Akshya Rout

Jajpur,Jan 2 :  Large numbers of tribal people on Monday observed ‘Black Day’ on the occasion of the  killing of 14 innocent tribals 17   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  rejected 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 12 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 Jaraka.

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 at with no report of untoward incident , ” said    the additional district magistrate  of police in Kalinganagar.