Opposition slams Odisha government on Kalinga Nagar firing

The opposition Congress and BJP today slammed the state government for not holding anyone guilty in the Kalinga Nagar "massacre", where 13 persons were killed in 2006.
The opposition slammed the government a day after the Odisha Cabinet approved a proposal to table the judicial commission report on the Kalinga Nagar police firing in the Assembly.
The state government had ordered a judicial inquiry into the police firing at Kalinga Nagar industrial hub in Jajpur district where 13 persons including 12 tribals died on January 2, 2006.
The leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra of Congress questioned the intention of the state government to table the judicial commission's report in the Assembly almost two years after the report was submitted.

Senior BJP leader and former law minister B B Harichandan said that 12 tribals were killed in Kalinga Nagar firing and how come nobody was held guilty for it. A policeman was also killed he said.
"Somebody should have been held responsible. The report is superfluous and biased and we cannot trust it." he said.

Reacting to Home Secretary Asit Tripathy's statement that the judicial commission has not recommended any action against any official, senior Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik rejected the Cabinet's decision of accepting a 'sterile' report and has demanded immediate tabling of the same in the Assembly for a discussion.

"Naveen Babu should show moral courage to let his MLAs express their views on the findings of the judicial commission," he said.
"In a welfare state protecting the weak and the poor is the responsibility of the government. If the government conspires to deny justice the weak would never get justice," Patnaik said.
He alleged that the BJD Government in Odisha is a puppet in the hand of bureaucrats and industry lobby groups and people of the state will reject such "callous and insensitive treatment" of tribal issues.