ROURKELA: The detention of an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of police by local tribals in the so-called ‘liberated zone’ of Raikani village within Rajgangpur police limits a few days back has brought to focus the self rule agenda being followed by supporters of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) (PESA) Act, 1996 movement in Sundargarh district.
Sources said, on February 23 a group of tribals and PESA movement sympathisers detained three survey workers of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for entering Raikani village. The ASI, Kashinath Barik reached the spot and secured the release of the workers.
However, when Barik was about to leave, he was detained by some tribal women who asked him to explain why he entered the village without their permission. The women also threatened him of dire consequences and asked him to sign a village register.
Barik said he was detained for three hours and released only after his seniors along with police force reached the spot. In adjacent Kutra, another ASI, Naveen Patel was beaten to death by some villagers in August, 2012. The ASI’s body was placed in a police jeep and the vehicle along with its driver pushed into a nullah. Fortunately, the driver of the vehicle survived the ordeal.
PESA activists allegedly indulge in violence in Rajgangpur and Kutra blocks often. In June, 2018, a man, opposed to the movement, was killed by PESA rights activists at Budakata village within Kutra police limits. A few years back, a PESA group in Lathikata block had tried to take control of the Public Distribution System along with panchayat assets.
Sundargarh is a scheduled district under the fifth schedule of the Constitution where the PESA Act is applicable. Tribal PESA rights groups reportedly continue to breath down the neck of the administration with their own interpretation of PESA laws to seek self-rule. Numerous self-styled PESA gram sabha committees across the district have declared several hundred villages ‘liberated zones’. Meanwhile, Rajgangpur SDPO Abhishek Panigrahi said a case has been registered and those involved in the detention of Barik have been identified.