Congress leader and former Koraput MlA Tara Prasad Bahinipati on Tuesday urged Governor SC Jamir to exercise his constitutional authority to remove School and Mass Education Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda from the Council of Ministers and ask police to file criminal cases against him and his family for forcefully encroaching upon 29 acres of land belonging to five Dalit families under Jeypur tehsil.
Bahinipati, who met the Governor at the Raj Bhawan and handed over a memorandum with facts relating to the encroachment of lands of Dalits in the scheduled district of Koraput, urged the latter’s intervention to give justice to the poor Dalits so that they get back their landed properties.
The Congress leader giving details of the Dalit land under illegal possession of Nanda and his family, said that the four Dalit families— Raghunath Damba, Puria Damba, Hari Damba, Siba Damba and Sundermani Damba are the real owners of the 29 acres of land in question.
The land in Bindaniguda and Kanjei-Patraput villages under the Jeypur tehsil had been vested in the Dalits’ favour who are the holder of Record of Rights (RoR), he said, adding that the Dalits had been regularly paying land revenue and the receipts are with them.
Despite the fact that there was no litigation relating to the lands, he pointed out that Minister Nanda and his wife Indira Nanda, in a clandestine manner, had illegally and forcefully encroached upon the land, where they had started a farm house.
Even, he said Nanda family had constructed a boundary wall around the 29 acres of land under illegal possession and encroached upon 10 acres of “gochar” land, meant for grazing of cattle and buffalos. This action of the Minister’s family had evoked large scale discontentment among the tribals and Dalits of the two villages, Bahinipatai said. Bahinipati also alleged that instead of giving justice to the poor Dalits, the officials of the Revenue Department, particularly the concerned Tehsildar and the Revenue Officer, had supported Nanda and his family.
Though the affected families have been running from pillar to post, particularly to the Tehsildar, Sub-Collector, Jeypur, Collector, Koraput and RDC, Brahmapur, none came to the rescue of the victims fearing the Minister, the ex-MlA said.
Besides, Nanda family has filed false cases against the real owners of the land, influencing the local police and Revenue officials and has been threatening them with dire consequence if they do not leave the village.