The BJP on Monday demanded immediate removal of School and Mass Education Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda from the Council of Ministers and his arrest for allegedly encroaching upon 72 acres of tribal and Dalit land at Patraput village under Jeypur tehsil of Koraput district.
Addressing a Press conference here, State BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma and general secretary of national BJP SC Morcha Baidhar Mallick alleged that the BJD Government had been anti-ST and anti- Dalit. The forcible occupation of the tribal and Dalit land by Minister Nanda and his family and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik staying mum over the issue has exposed this, they said.
Condemning the conduct of the Minister and his family, the BJP leaders sought Nanda to clarify his position in the alleged land grabbing and provide documentary evidence to justify the legality of his possession of the land.The Chief Minister should take immediate steps to give justice to the tribal and Dalit families, who are the real owners having Record of Rights (RoR) of the land and ensure return of the land, Sharma and Mallick said.
Notably, four SC and ST families in the scheduled district of Koraput have alleged that Minister Nanda and his wife Indira Nanda, in a clandestine manner, robbed them of 72 acres of land, where they have started a farm house and constructed a boundary wall by misusing the MlA lAD fund. Besides, Nanda’s family had also encroached upon a large area of Gochar land, they complained. The hapless Dalits in their bid to get back their land had even started an agitation in Jeypur.
Stating that the action of Nanda’s family was illegal, the BJP leaders said that forcible occupation of Dalit and tribal land by non-tribals in a scheduled district violates the Odisha land Reforms Act and Section 3 of the Prevention of SC and ST Atrocity Act. At the same time, the BJP leaders demanded filing of criminal cases against Nanda and his family members, besides against all those who aided and abetted the crime.
Alleging that the tribal and SC communities are the worst sufferers during the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD regime in last 14 years, the BJP leaders said that Dalits were not safe and subjected to harassment and exploitation in several cases.
Though the Chief Minister’s catch word has been “law would take its course,” this is not true in case of providing security to the STs and SCs as the Chief Minister has been shielding the erring Ministers and his party MlAs, Sharma and Mallick said.
Mallick said that his party would give a memorandum to the National Commissions for SCs and STs for their intervention in the land grabbing case and protect the backward class. Mallick warned that should the Chief Minister continue to shield Nanda and all others involved in the land grab case, the BJP would launch a State wide agitation against the anti-Dalit stance of the BJD Government.