As many as 10 inquiry commissions have been appointed by the BJD Government during its 16 years of rule into several police firing incidents. However, several reports are yet to be submitted.
This comes to fore following the Government’s announcement of a judicial commission to probe the July 8 police firing in Kandhamal, in which five tribal villagers were killed.
Earlier, the Government had appointed Justice AS Naidu to inquire the killing of 14 tribals who were gunned down by the police in Kalinganagar of Jajpur district on January 2, 2006.
later, Justice RK Patra was assigned to conduct the probe into the killings. The Government again appointed Justice PK Mohanty to probe the incident. Over Rs 2 crore has been spent towards the commission, but no report has been submitted yet to the Government even after 10 years of the incident.
Earlier, Justice Basudev Panigrahi was appointed to investigate two police firing incidents occurred in Maikanch of Rayagada district in December 2000 and Raighar and Rangabhati of Nabarangpur district in 2001. Even, judicial inquiry was conducted on 2005 firing in Champua police station and two more firings in Dhenkanal and Bolangir in 2009. A judiciary probe was conducted on 2010 Badalpur firing of Cuttack and 2012 Ganjam firing incidents. While around Rs 1.50 crore was spent on the investigation of Bolangir firing, around Rs 25 lakh had been spent on Badalpur incident.
Similarly, another commission had inquired the 1999 Khurda firing incident. However, justice for the victims and their families was not announced yet.
last year, the Government had ordered for probe into Namtara police crackdown on women, who were protesting against liquor in Kendrapada.
The commission was asked to submit the report within three months. However, the report is yet to be submitted. At least six women were seriously wounded in the police firing on the International Women’s Day in Namtara.
The Government has constituted at least 15 commissions between 2004 and 2015 to probe several incidents and scams including chit fund. Around Rs 12 crore has been spent from the State exchequer for the investigations. However, several commissions have delayed in submitting their reports.
Recently, the State Government ordered a judicial probe into killing of five tribals, who were gunned down by the SOGs during anti-Maoist operation in Gumuduma village of Kandhamal district on July 8 last.
An inquiry commission is asked to investigate a particular incident without having power to punish the culprits. The issue remains unimportant due to delay in inquiry for years.
Justice JM Mohapatra Commission was appointed to probe the stampede incident occurred inside Jagannath temple in Puri. However, the report was allegedly missing and no action has been taken on the recommendation of the commission, the legal experts stated.