BALANGIR: A Day after Sulia Samskar Manch (SSM), a reformist outfit, decided to completely curb the largescale animal sacrifice at the annual Sulia festival at Khairguda in Balangir this year, the tribals swiftly reacted to it saying the heinous practice will go on as usual. The tribals expressed this at a rally at Ampada village here Sunday.
According to sources, the tribals under the banner of Zilla Adivasi Kalyan Sangha took part in a rally to put pressure on government to act against non-tribals who have managed to get fake ST certificates. During the course of the rally, tribal leaders like Satyanarayan Bhoi and Brajakishor Singh Bhoi maintained that the animal sacrifice at Sulia will continue as per the tradition and none can stop this. Earlier, the SSM convened a meeting to discuss the course of action to stop killing of animals at Sulia. The convener of the SSM Santanu Nayak had then said with the assistance of district administration awareness campaign will be launched in villages to stop sacrifice. ‘‘Like in previous years, we have decided to organise the festival in a Sattvik way. The sacrifice has been checked at the main seat of the festival known as Bada Khala. However, this year we need to see that sacrifice is curbed at other two places,’’ said Nayak. The district collector Kashinath Sahu too had endorsed the idea of SSM and directed the officials to begin awareness campaign. To begin with SSM has planned to convene meetings at the villages and convince the persons involved in the sacrifice.