Rayagada DM, SP violate constitutional norms; Blames BJP’s Basanta Ulaka;DM, SP refute charges
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, October 15: Basant Kumar Ullaka, State Permanent Invitee, Bharatiya Janata Party has blamed both Collector & SP for repeatedly violating their executive roles thereby murdering democracy.
According to Basanta, the provisions of the Constitution are frequently being disregarded as the administration is working at the behest of the ruling party BJD.
“Who gave them the right to invite former Rajya Sabha MP N Bhaskar Rao in the government programs and allow him sitting on the dais potraying as if the programmes are implemented under his leadership(?) Rao is only a party worker now. If there is a rule to sit on the dais for former MPs or MLAs then why former tribal MPs or MLAs elected by the people of our District are not invited to the dais (?) Why is such neglect of the Administration to the tribal leaders in tribal District like Rayagada? “, asked Ullaka. In fact, he was referring two occasions namely inauguration meeting of a cyber safety campaign convened by SP and an information meeting convened by Collector to rehabilitate the agitating families displaced by Railways in 52 acres identified by district administration.
In both the meetings, Rao, presently officiating as BJD State Vice-President ws seen sitting on the dais.
Ullaka said that the district unit of BJP would lodge a complaint before the ST Commissioner regarding the repeated neglect of the tribals in the tribal district and making them feel inferior. BJP district unit will never tolerate the killing of democracy, said Ullaka, who is anguished over the whole episode.
On the other hand, Collector Swadha Dev Singh has refuted the charges made by Ullaka. “It was neither a political meeting nor an official program. We had zeroed in on some options for rehabilitation of those who will be evicted from Railway land in Municipal area. We got information that few people in Municipality area were planning a rally on Saturday/Sunday regarding Railway’s eviction and so the meeting was scheduled on Friday inviting only the slum people and their representatives. The public representatives/political party leaders also came to convey the concerns of these people and ended up staying for the duration of the meeting. No one was specifically invited for the meeting except slum dwellers”, said Swadha.
SP Vivekananda Sharma had a different point of view. “As that day Mr Rao was the only most senior leader and Ex-MP present, he was invited because of his massive following. Though the cyber safety campaign was mainly focussed in Odia language, taking into the context of deep penetration of digital medium into the rural hinterland and prevalence of multilingualism in the district, Telugu, Kuvi and Saura languages were also used to spread the campaign in each nook & corner of the district. There was no conscious intention to avoid any section of the society”, said Sharma.
