The State Government’s accordance of tourist spot status to Amco-Simco in Sundargarh might have brought some amusement to the tribals residing in the district, but the freedom fighter status is yet to be given to tribal martyrs of the Amco-Simco massacre even after 80 years of the incident.

This was opined by guests on the occasion of the observance of the Amco-Simco Day here on Thursday.

While speaking on the occasion,Amco-SimcoSaheedSmarak Committee (ASSC) vice president Bijay Kumar Toppo thanked the State Government for according the tourist spot tag to the venue. He further said that so far the State Government has already sanctioned Rs 90 lakh towards the construction of a Saheed Stambha in the style of Jaliwanawalabag and development of the area.

More assistance will be sought from the Government, he said. He also thanked the State Government for taking initiative to put up a statue of Saheed Nirmal Munda at Vedavyas Chowk.

Toppo said the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry has also sanctioned Rs 4 crore for the development of the tourist spot and one day this spot will be an attraction for the tourists. But the sorry state of affairs is that so far, the 49 victims have not been accorded the recognition of martyrs.

Among others, Biramitrapur MLA George Tirkey, former MLA Nihar Surin, ASSC Joint Secretary Prasanna Tripathy spoke and urged early martyrs’ recognition to the victims.

It is to be mentioned here that the Amco-Simco, which is also called as the second Jalianawalabag of India, recollects memories of a massacre, where 49 tribal people had been killed on the Amco-Simco field on April 25, 1939.

To pay homage to the victims, members of Amco-Simco Saheed Smarak Committee (ASSC), local tribal leaders, freedom fighters and guests observe the day every year and demand freedom fighter status to the victims.

Notably, tribal people of the locality used to cultivate in the forest lands for years. According to Khuntkati tradition, the tribals have every right on the land where they develop cultivation, but the then Sundargarh rulers conspiring with the British Government imposed tax on the tribals in 1931 and it got doubled in 1932 on the basis of the Indra Bilas Mukherjee report.

Protesting against this, the tribals got united under the leadership of Nirmal Munda. A demand to abolish the tax was given to Gangpur Province Administrative head Regent Rani Saheba Janaki Ratnadevi, but she turned it down and sought help from British rulers to suppress the revolution.

On April 25, 1939, when Munda was addressing a gathering at Amco-Simco ground, police forces led by SP Gourishanakr Sekhar Deo and Leutenant Commandant of British Government ambushed the gathering and opened fire at them without giving any warning.

As many as 49 tribals were killed on the spot. Later, they were thrown into a lime kiln at Brahman Mara to conceal the heinous incident.