the Government should Bear its responsibility to follow the right process of eviction and to provide suitable alternative houses for the victimes

Six dalit families (18 persons) have been living at a place called Shastri Nagar Basti close to the plot no.-259, at-Shastri Nagar, ward no-14, police station - Kharabela Nagar, Bhubaneswar in front of Binapani Club since last 40 years (approx). They all depend on daily labour works and the women generally work as domestic helps in the houses of others in nearby colonies. In sixties they came from Bhismapur village (Digapahandi police station), Ganjam district to work as labourer to assist in putting electricity poles. They started using this small patch of government land left unused to build up their huts. In the meantime, they were able to construct their relatively permanent houses with bricks walls and thatched roofs surrounded high raising buildings. They have been provided with voter ID cards, ration cards by the respective government officials. Their children are studying in nearby government schools. Several times these people have been approaching different officials for records of rights over the lands. While thousands and thousands of plots in Bhubaneswar have been allotted to ‘big’ people (government servants, businessmen, politicians and others) violating all land and environment norms, the genuine claims of these people for records of rights over the lands under their possession and use for more than 30 years have been constantly ignored by the authorities. Without the knowledge of these poor dalit residents, one person (Netrananda Praharaj) manipulated government records with the help of some corrupt revenue officials sold out the plot to a real estate dealer (Ram Sankar Nanda, age-41, s/o Baidyanath Nanda, Jayadev Nagar, Nageswar Tangi, Lingaraj Police Station, Bhubaneswar) 3 years back. They came to know this only when the builder sent some masons and labourers to construct a boundary wall there six months’ back. The residents opposed the construction and sent the workers back.

Recently the builder hired a professional goon (Prasanna Mohanty) in order to, forcefully; evict the dalit families from the land. On 18th September, 2012 at 9 AM, when the adult members were outside for their daily labour works, a gang of 60 people led by said person with swords and other deadly weapons came to the place and started beating their children and an young unmarried lady Sunita Nayak(25), while taking their food. They destroyed and looted their houses and household articles. Even the food eaten by the children were thrown out by these anti-socials. Sunita Nayak, d/o late Somanath Nayak, who is a single woman, lost her parents earlier, was molested, severely beaten up and got injuries. The miscreants forcefully looted away all her earnings about Rs. 35000/- cash along with some gold ornaments that she saved for her marriage (supposed to take place within couple of months) after years of hard labour works. The children, whoever was present there at that time, were abused, terrorized and misbehaved by the miscreants. All these happened in the presence of a security guard engaged by the builder and police personnel in a PCR van. Hearing this from others, the women members, came running and repeatedly requested the police personnel (in PCR Van) to do something to stop the miscreants from destroying their houses. But without paying any heed to them, the police carelessly left that place. Sunita Nayak, already traumatised and broken, went to local Kharavela Nagar police station to lodge her complaint, who became senseless near the police station, when police refused to receive her complaint. Of course, the police took her to the hospital for treatment

When asked by a reporter, the IIC of Kharabela Nagar police station said that he has not got any complaints about this matter, but Sunita and her relatives claim that they had reported to the IIC Kharavela Nagar. Unfortunately, they did not respond them positively and told them ‘this does not come within their area of intervention’.

After the matter came out in media, it is learnt that the police arrested three persons namely Sashi Bhusan Das, Kalia Nanda and Liju, while the builder Nanda and Prasanna are scot free. On 19th September the women again went to the police station to lodge the complaint, it is not known to them if it is registered or not.

These dalit families are under constant fear of further attacks and forcible displacement. The builder and henchmen may attack them at time. They demanded the administration take urgent steps to settle the matter. Their demands are: -

Names of Head of Victim Families

and their family members

Report prepared by Manoj Sahani on behalf of Civil Society Forum on Human Rights (CSFHR), Bhubaneswar, Odisha on 19th September, 2012

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