Dongria Kondh people Of Niyamgiri Stage Protest Demanding To Release Lingaraj Azad
RELEASE LINGARAJ AZAD!!!
Samajwadi Jan Parishad (SJP) National General Secretary Aflatoon addressing protest rally at Bhubaneswar on Monday 11 March.
News18 Odia
Published on Mar 11, 2019
Dangaria Adibasi Of Niyamgiri Stage Protest Demanding To Release Lingaraj Azad
The Times of India
Published on Mar 11, 2019
Bhubaneswar: Dongria Khand tribal leader arrested, protestors reach Odisha Assembly office
Published on Mar 11, 2019
In response to the arrest of Lingaraj Azad, tribal leader of the Dongria Khand of Niyamgiri Hills on March 6, the tribal community staged a protest outside the Odisha Assembly in Bhubaneswar on March 11. Tribals were led by workers of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad and were demanding the immediate release of Azad from the Bhawanipatna jail. Samajwadi Jan Parishad leaders later met governor Ganeshi Lal on the issue. Azad was arrested by Kalahandi police under suspicion for two cases.
Go News 24x7 India
Published on Mar 12, 2019
Adivasis Protest, Seek Release of Activist
Published on Mar 12, 2019
Adivasis protest in Bhubaneswar against the arrest of supporter and activist Lingaraj Azad and demand his immediate release
Giridharipatra Patra
Published on Mar 11, 2019
LINGRAJ AZAD RIHAI KA VIDEO
THE STATESMAN
Tribals from Niyamgiri hills protest decrying arrest of leader
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
BHUBANESWAR, 11 MARCH
The Samajvadi Jan Parishad and National Alliance of People’s Movements staged a protest with tribals from Niyamgiri hills decrying the arrest of tribal leader Lingaraj Azad who had successfully opposed the mining of the hills.
The silent protest by tribals here was followed by a delegation submitting a memorandum to Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal. The Dongaria tribe of Niyamgiri hills are subjected to gross human rights violation and police repression said the SJP and NAPM activists Prafulla Samantara, Joshi Jyckob, Dadi Pusika and others. After a series of battles to save Niyamgiri from the aggression of a mega multinational Aluminum Company Vedanta, the Dongarias got a favorable verdict from our Supreme Court on 18 April, 2013 which directed the government to conduct Gram Sabhas to seek the mandate of the people for mining.
The Dongarias and other inhabitants of Niyamgiri unanimously rejected mining in the officially conducted Gram Sabhas under the supervision of a District Judge.
But after the unanimous verdict of Dongarias against mining, a proxy war against the tribals has been unleashed with the help of the police to crush the tribal movement by labelling leaders as Maoists, they alleged.
The Naveen Patnaik government, notwithstanding the rhetoric they use in the name of tribal empowerment, have indeed aided the company in Niyamgiri, they alleged.
Lingaraj Azad who has been helping the Dongarias for the last 17 years since the time when the Maoist issue was not even whispered in the area. He has been booked under false cases, they alleged.
Much before that they had picked up the leader of the movement Lada Sikaka on false premises.
Azad, who happens to be the National Vice President of Samajavadi Jan Parishad and also a convener of the National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements (NAPM) has been arrested and threatened several times in all these years.
Citing the instance that led to the arrest of Azad, they said, a public hearing had opposed handing over of the Panchayat office to the CRPF to setup its camp. They noted that it is a Schedule V area and PESA is the law that governs the area but the administration and police were least concerned about the laws of the land.
People have been demanding health and education through their panchayat but they have been now given armed police, they chided in their memorandum to the Governor.
List out their demands they said repression of peaceful and democratic activists like Lingaraj Azad, Lada Sikaka, Dadhi, Drenju and several others must stop, erring police officers booked, the Trilochanpur panchayat office given back to the villegers etc.
-Courtesy of the Statesman (Tuesday, 12 March 2019)
Niyamgiri activist Lingaraj Azad gets bail
Staff Reporter
BHUBANESWAR , March 12, 2019 01:44 IST
Updated: March 12, 2019 01:44 IST
Had staged protest outside IRB camp
Lingaraj Azad, convener of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS), who was arrested last week, was granted bail by a local court in Kalahandi district on Monday.
“We are happy that Mr. Azad, who was arrested on flimsy grounds, will be released from jail,” said activist Prafulla Samantara, who met Governor Ganeshi Lal here to seek his intervention on the police and administration’s “illogical” actions.
Mr. Azad had been charged for leading a demonstration outside the Vedanta alumina refinery at Lanjigarh on the foothills of Niyamgiri in April 2017 and for a demonstration outside the India Reserve Battalion camp at Trilochanpur village last month.
The activist was earlier granted bail in the Lanjigarh case while the court granted him bail in the Trilochanpur case on Monday.
Earlier in the day, a group of Dongria Kondhs, a tribal group, who had rejected a bauxite mining proposal through their gram sabhas in Niyamgiri in 2013, came to Bhubaneswar to express solidarity with Mr. Azad.
‘Peaceful protest’
“The decision to arrest Mr. Azad was an atrocious one. We have been peacefully protesting against attempts to start mining in Niyamgiri Hills. The government wants to bully us through indiscriminate arrests. The police had also slapped fabricated cases against me and Lada Sikaka, NSS chief,” said Dadhi Pusika, a Dongria Kondh community leader. He was part of the delegation that met the Governor.
The delegation urged Mr. Lal to order an impartial inquiry into police actions against the NSS leadership and Dongria Kondh tribes.
Mr. Azad was named as a sympathiser of banned outfit CPI(Maoist), which has been waging an armed rebellion against the government, in a statement released by the State police after his arrest on March 6. He was also accused of disturbing the poll process.
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