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In search of peace in Kandhamal

Staff Reporter

Leaders of various faiths meet

Odisha Shanti and Sadbhawana Abhiyan takes initiative
Veteran Gandhian urges groups to bury differences

BHUBANESWAR: Four months after innumerable attacks, arson and arrests in the communally-charged Kandhamal district of Orissa, different faith leaders met here on Friday in search of lasting peace.

The Odisha Shanti and Sadbhawana Abhiyan (OSSA), an initiative by civil society groups and intellectuals from different walks of life to restore peace in Kandhamal, consulted different leaders and tried to put together their suggestions in its attempt to unite communities in the district.

S.N. Subbarao, a veteran Gandhian leader, urged upon different factions to bury their differences and attempt to restore peace without guns, goons and security personnel.

While Swarupananda Patra, president of the Orissa Minority Forum, came up with an idea to shift relief camps closer to villages, Ashok Sahu, president of Hindu Jagaran Samukhya (HJS), said that the State government should pay attention to those who had been hiding in jungles fearing arrests.

Monitoring panels

Mr. Patra said village-level monitoring committees, comprising representatives from different communities and the administration, should be set up and they should ensure that no untoward incident took place in future. He suggested to the administration to foil the evil designs of rumourmongers who wanted to keep the situation alive for cheap political gains.

“The State government has actually widened the gap between communities by instilling fear of arrest. One lakh people have been identified as accused persons while cases have been registered against some 700 persons. Several innocent people have been languishing in jails,” Mr. Sahu pointed out. The issue of conversion should be debated and a strategy should be adopted to stop it for lasting peace in the district, Mr. Sahu said.

Addressing the consultation meet, Madhusudan Padhi, Chief Administrator of Kandhamal district, said that the situation was improving slowly in the district after majority of people were able to harvest their crops.

“The peace process is hampered by external interventions. First a delegation of Union Ministers came to the district and subsequently a bandh call made matters worse. It distracted the administration from its focus,” Mr. Padhi said.

He said that the district administration had so far conducted 2,000 peace committee meetings for developing people-to-people contacts.

A hurdle

“The media has proved to be one of the biggest hurdles in our attempt to restore peace. Media organisations are not letting the issue to die down. We want everybody to be responsible while addressing sensitive issues in connection with Kandhamal district,” Mr. Padhi said.

Among others, Mufti A. Rehman Naqvi, headmaster of Madrasa at Nuasahi in Cuttack, Bhagaban Prakash, working chairman of OSSA, Radhamohan, former Information Commissioner, and Dhanada K. Mishra, volunteer associated with OSSA, participated in the consultation.

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