Dalit representatives and leaders representing various organisations assembled here on May 25 on the occasion of Budha Purnima and wondered over the inertia and inaction of the BJD Government led by Naveen Patnaik in not taking prompt action against Minister Dr Damodar Rout for his anti-Dalit remarks.
"Our repeated prayer and petition against the Minister have gone unheeded,” said Madhabendra Gochhayat and Manoj Patra of the Phully Ambedkar Dalit Vikas Parishad of Jagatsinghpur unit.
State president of the National Confederation of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR) Ashok Mallik, citing the apex court’s judgement in Arumugan Servai versus State of Tamilnadu and Ajit Kumar and others versus State of Tamilnadu, said the court had directed strong measures against people to prevent atrocities against Dalits.
If any such incidents happen, apart from instituting criminal proceedings against those responsible for such atrocities, the State Government is directed to immediately suspend the District Collector and SP and other officials and charge sheet them and proceed against them departmentally if they do not prevent the incident, the court had said. But the District Collector and SP of Jagatsinghpur are sitting tight over the matter by resorting to their unending bags of dilatory tactic.
Dalit activists lamented that despite the diatribe against Dalit masses by Rout, the CM’s lack of will to bring him to book proves that there is a tacit understanding between the erring Minister and the party supremo which will cost BJD very dearly in the coming polls.