Elections to the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) are most likely to be put on hold as the Odisha High Court has ordered an interim stay on the notification of the State Government for formation of the proposed corporation.
The court’s directive came on Friday in response to two writ petitions filed by villagers of Jagada and Jhartarang panchayats. The petitioners’ counsel Naresh Chandra Jena said the Government had announced formation of the RMC on November 14, 2014 after including some Scheduled Areas in its jurisdiction.
“There cannot be any municipality in any Scheduled or tribals-dominated area as per the provisions of the Constitution. As the Government announced formation of the RMC by including Jagada and Jhartarang panchayats, Scheduled Areas, people of the two panchayats filed writ petitions challenging the Government notification.
The court has made it clear that there can be no activity on RMC-related matter by the Government. In other words, the Government can neither have any activity relating to RMC elections and nor any change in the notification it has made in this regard,” Jena said.
While the inclusion of the two panchayats under the RMC jurisdiction is anti-Constitutional, it has also violated the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, under which the Government has to take the consent of the people of a village and the Gram Sabha.
Besides, there would be open violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) if the two panchayats are included in the RMC jurisdiction as neither the villagers of the two panchayats and nor their Gram Sabha would become the owner of common property resources under the FRA as they would lose their entity after their inclusion in the corporation. The tribals would lose their economic, legal, social and cultural rights in the process, Jena pointed out.
In the wake of the High Court’s order, Biramitrapur MlA George Tirkey, who is leading the tribals’ agitation under the banner of Sundargarh Adivasi Mulabasi Bachao Sangha (SAMBS), said there is no point in continuing the agitation before the RMC office henceforth.
He, however, said that the Sangha would stage a demonstration in front of the Raj Bhawan in Bhubaneswar on April 8 for a permanent solution to the issue. There was jubilation among the tribals in Rourkela after they came to know about the court order.