Congress demands all party meeting on Kandhmal violence

Bhubaneswar, Jan 6 (UNI) The state Congress today alleged that the BJD-BJP government has failed to control the Kandhmal violence and demanded an all party meeting to restore peace in the strife-torn district which witnessed a communal clash between tribals and the Christians.

A fact finding team of the Congress, led by former state Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal visited a relief camp in Sorada and told newspersons here that the violence in Kandhmal was a conspiracy by the ruling BJD-BJP to flare up communal violence.

Mr.Biswal said the district administration prevented their visit to the affected areas on the ground that it would further aggravate the situation which was fast returning to normalcy.

He said the team visited a relief camp in Sorada, where 580 Hindus from three villages- Tiari, Godapur and Katingia were taking shelter fearing attack from the Christian community.

This clearly proved that the law and order situation was still tense in the villages in Kandhmal and the district authority was trying to cover up the incident stating that the normalcy has been restored in the area.

Former Union Minister Srikant Jena and former ministers Seikh Matlub Ali, Niranjan Pattnaik and Prasad Harichandan, who accompanied the team, said Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik should take the opposition political parties into confidence in dealing with the situation.

The Congress alleged that callousness and ignorance of the district administration had led to the communal violence in the area.

They also criticised the government for restricting the visit of the opposition political parties into the area and said even the local representatives of the area were not allowed to visit the affected places.

UNI DP ADG RD MS RN2002