CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday ordered a five-member committee of advocates constituted by it to visit Dhinkia panchayat again on March 5 to take stock of the situation in the villages there.
The court had constituted the advocates’ panel on December 16 while hearing three PILs which have sought protection of human rights of people protesting against the proposed steel plant of Jindal Steel Works (JSW) in Dhinkia.
The members of the panel Sukant Kumar Dalai, Omkar Devdas, Prasant Kumar Jena (petitioners’ counsels), D K Mohanty and Janmejaya Katikiya (State counsels) had visited the panchayat on February 19, but couldn’t speak to the people due to commotion by the different groups. They submitted their reports on the visit separately on Wednesday.
The bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik observed, “From the reports submitted to the court there is by and large a consensus that there was a commotion in Dhinkia during the visit of the five advocates. It is also clear that there were two identified groups of people - one opposing the steel plant project and one supporting it. It appears that because of the commotion, the advocates were unable to properly interact with people of the area, and the reports, by and large, reflected the situation.”
Directing another visit by the panel on March 5, the bench ordered that the meeting will be arranged by the local administration in the village and the Collector and Superintendent of Police will remain physically present.
The sarpanch and other elected members of the gram panchayat will also remain present in the meeting. Both groups of people will be permitted to come and place their views with it while ensuring that one will not obstruct the other.” The bench also directed the Collector and SP to remain present in virtual mode to answer queries on March 11.