Does a Member of Parliament (MP) have any role in the proceedings of a Palli SabhaIJ The presence of Kalahandi Congress MP and AICC spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das at the Palli Sabha at Palbari village in Kalahandi district on Thursday has evoked strong protests from the lanjigarh Vikash Parishad (lVP), a local outfit supporting bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri Hills.
Palli Sabhas are being held in the Niyamgiri Hills villages as per the Supreme Court’s directive to seek views of the locals, mostly tribals, on whether bauxite would be mined from the Niyamgiri reserves for supply of raw material to Vedanta’s lanjigarh alumina refinery. Bhakta Das is known to be an opponent to the proposed mining. The lVP termed the MP’s presence at the palli Sabha as a bid to influence the tribals. lVP president Shridhar Pesnia said the MP was not only present along with his supporters at the Palli Sabha but was even sitting on the dais which was a blatant case of his interference in the Palli Sabha.
Pensia claimed that the Supreme Court had directed all stakeholders to refrain from actively campaigning in the area or influencing the tribals. While the OMC and Vedanta have respected the court’s directive and are conspicuous by their absence from the villages, the NGOs and the MP seemed to ignore this, he said. Pesnia alleged that in all the Palli Sabhas held so far, every village witnessed more than 200 NGO activists openly surrounding the Sabha site.
However, strongly refuting the allegations, Bhakta Das said, “Since the Supreme Court verdict clearly allows a local representative to attend the Palli Sabha, I committed no mistake in attending it. As an MP is the supreme public representative, I went to the Palli Sabha just to see what was happening there. I did not utter a single word at the Palli Sabha. As I am the local MP, people offered me a chair there along with the District Vigilance Judge (who conducted the Palli Sabha proceedings).” He asserted that starting from a ward member, an MlA and an MP can participate in a Palli Sabha in their concerned areas as per the Supreme Court’s order. “No one can prohibit a local representative from attending such a Palli Sabha,” said Das.