The State Conference of All India Peoples Forum (AIPF) was held on October 27 and 28 here calling for unity among organizations and activists to protect the rights of the underprivileged including the Dalits and tribals.
After the welcome address by PravashSamantray the inaugural session was started by PanchananSenapati, the State coordinator of Odisha. GirijaPathak, the national coordinator, coordinated. Among the various national and State level speakers like Kavita Krishnan, Prof Vijay Pratap, scribe Bhasa Singh, RTE campaigner Ambrish Roy, former Minister BrajaTripathy, scientist Asutosh Parida, Dalit rights activist Manas Jena, Dr Jhon Dayal, Binod Singh, VidyaSagar, Tushar Chakrabartty, Sankarlal Choudhury and others spoke.
The topic ‘Neo Liberalism and People’s Control over Natural Resources’ was discussed during the post launch session which was presided by Pradeep Sahu and coordinated by Narendra Mohanty.
The speakers like Srimanta Mohanty, political activist, Lingaraj Azad of Niyamgiri Surakshya Samiti, former bureaucrat Dr SanjibHota, Dr Sricharan Behera, Sandhya Devi and Prof Nilamani Sahoo spoke.
On the second day, the campaign strategy was prepared for people’s movements and the challenges to face before the movements for the protection of life and livelihood.
Mahendra Parida presented the ‘charter of demands’ of AIPF while ‘the manifesto’ was presented by Atoshi Mallick. Various speakers from different organisations like Panchanan Senapati, Anna Kujur, Bijay Swain, Akshaya Das, Damodar Sabar, Balabhadra Malik, Bhisma Pangi, Mahamed Sukru, Debi Prasad Prusty, Brajendra Mohanty, Durjyodhan Parida, Saraju Singhasamant, Rumita Kundu, Brundaban Bidika, Madan Nanda, Banshidhar Parida, Jagabandhu Sabar, Eso Gamang, Sasmita Jena, Sarbeswar Bharati, Sanjay Mohanty, Jadumohan Sabar, Ashok Kumar Kaleth, Rupadhar Bishoyi, Litulal Devsubudhi, Prakash Mallik, Tapan Mohanty and others presented issues and critical challenges they have been facing in the struggle forrights over land, forest and water and highlighted various complex situations prevailing in the ground and regional levels.
A strong opinion was expressed among the tribal leaders and participants that in the 5th Schedule (tribal dominated) Areas of the Constitution of India the rights of people over land, forest and water and of GramSabhas have been suppressed and violated by the Government itself.
All the laws and regulations have been sacrificed to protect the interests of the industrialists’ national and multinational companies.
All the constitutional rights and provisions provided for the Scheduled Tribes in the fifth Schedule areas and the districts covered under the Provisions for (the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Area), Act 1996 have been violated. Without ensuring the right to homestead land and shelter to these marginalised sections, they have been forcibly evicted from their ancestral homeland, they said.
Finally, a session was held discussing organisational strategy presided by Pravas Samantray. The National Campaign Committee member and State Convener of AIPF RadhakantSethy called for all the similar pro-people organizations and progressive organizations to come together as a united alternative force to fights against such odds.
At the end the names of 45 members’ advisory committee, 55 members’ campaign committee and 64members State council was declared. The meeting ended with a collective recital of a song “we shall overcome” by all the participants.
