BHUBANESWAR: Demanding immediate judgment on mining cases which was reserved in the Odisha High Court for more than one year, the members and advisors of the Odisha Jana Adhikar Parishad (OJAP) staged peaceful dharna in front of the Raj Bhavan here on Thursday. The members of the Parishad later handed over a memorandum to the President of India through the Governor in the matter.
In their memorandum, the members
said that a writ petition was filed in the nature of a PIL before the High
Court in 2009 to unearth the nexus which is running the huge illegal mining
operations in the State. Following the case filed by Pratap Chandra Rout, eight
more writ petitions came up on the same issue, it added.
The case was being heard by the
High Court and the judgment was reserved on April 18, 2011. “Since then we have been waiting for the
judgment which can expose the unholy nexus between the mining mafias and the
Government,” said OJAP president Bijay Kumar Parida.
“We are deeply disturbed by the
fact that a large racket is reaping the rewards of delays in the delivery of
judgment. There is every possibility that on this ground itself, the opposite
parties would pray that the matter be heard afresh which would cause
irreparable loss prejudiced to the cause of the public interest,” the members
said in the memorandum.
The members of the Parishad said
the plundering of mines have been going unchecked in open with active
co-operation and support of unscrupulous politicians, bureaucrats, big
businessmen and other functionaries. These looted minerals are being
transported to foreign countries also, they added.
The members requested the
President of India to advise the Odisha High Court to do the minimum job of
pronouncing the verdict on the writ petition for which the people of the State
have been waiting for the last 18 months. Among others, journalist Rabi Das,
MLA George Tirkey, social activist Prafulla Samantaray and OJAP general
secretary Ramesh Barik sat on dharna.
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