The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday sought an Action-Taken Report (ATR) from the State Chief Secretary and the Keonjhar district Collector over the sorry state of affairs of the common man in Keonjhar district.
The order was passed in response to a petition filed by activist lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy.
The petitioner has stated that Keonjhar district is one of the highest royalty paying districts of India so far as mining is concerned. But to utter dismay, the quantum of poverty, malnutrition, literacy, deprivation of bare necessities and basic amenities is too high. The inhabitants of the district are crying for their basic human rights due to apathy, negligence and failure of the State Government and district administration.
The environment pollution, soil and water contamination, acid rock and seepage, air pollution, lack of potable drinking water, unavailability of proper road and digital communication are the main problems faced by most of the villagers in the district. The fundamentals required to develop the quality of human life in the district requires proper bottom-up planning by involving Gram Sabhas especially of mining affected areas on the aspects of responsible mining and transparent utilization of DMF and CSR funds. The Governments at the Center, the State and the district administration must consider on top priority to the climate and environment emergency, violation of human rights of the vulnerable people going on for decades in the district, Tripathy contended.
He requested the NHRC for consideration of all the aspects and a direction to the Chief Secretary of Odisha and the district administration of Keonjhar to ensure bare necessities and basic amenities in all the villages to save the residents of the district from environment pollution and large scale violation of human rights in different forms and domains with improvement in the quality of their lives.
The Commission sought for an action taken report within four weeks.