Evicted Dalit families appeal SHRC for justice

BHUBANESWAR:  Two dalit families of Athanga village under Kandarpur police station in Cuttack here on Friday appealed the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to take appropriate action against the culprits who threatened the families in a village land dispute case.

According to the Milita Dalit Mahamanch (MDM), a regional outfit working for Dalit rights, who took the families to meet SHRC here, said the Athanga villagers had taken away two-decimal land from 14 decimal land of Pahali Kabati and Pari Kabati’s parental land in the village to construct a road for the village temple. The families didn’t tell anything fearing the village people then, the MDM members said.

But when the villagers again asked some land for setting up of a park for the temple, said the MDM members, the family members denied which later created anger among the villagers. Kabati brothers were summoned to present in the village meeting on July 15 to donate the land for the park, but they didn’t. The family members left the place immediately when the villagers Prakash Rout, Bula Pradhan, Sina Beura and Pabana Rout came with sharp weapons to attack them, said the MDM members.

The Kabati family informed the Kandarpur police with the help of an organisation on July 13, but the police didn’t take any steps to provide protection to the family. On the very next day, the organisation appealed the Cuttack DCP about the atrocity on dalit people in the village and local police station’s inaction in the case, but here also they failed to get justice from the police department, alleged the MDM members.

The family members requested the SHRC to intervene into the matter and to take appropriate action for the protection of their land and life.