The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notice to the District Collector of Bhadrak on the petition seeking redressal of grievances of Charadia Panchayat despite repeated directives and failure of the district administration to ensure basic amenities to the residents.
The NHRC passed the order acting on a petition filed by rights activist and Supreme Court Lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy.
“The Commission has received a number of complaints from one Radhakanta Tripathy, Advocate, and Human Rights Defender alleging denial of basic necessities and amenities to the residents of nine villages in Bhadrak District, Odisha. Prayer has been made for intervention by the Commission in the matter”, the NHRC in its order stated.
The Commission has considered the matter. The allegations made in the complaint are serious in nature involving ‘Right to Life’. The case therefore involves grave violation of Human Rights of the victims.
Such types of cases are viewed very seriously by the Commission. In these circumstances, let a Notice be sent to the District Magistrate, Badrak, Odisha calling for an action taken report within a period of four weeks, the order said.
As many as four orders have been passed from 2015 till date with directives to the State Authorities; however, the Bhadrak district collector has been taking any action in this regard.
Charadia became a panchayat in 1952. It consists of nine villages, Charadia Its population is around ten thousand today. This area is in the hinterland of the supposedly developed and thriving Dhamara Port.
This panchayat has no round-the-year access by road. In the nine villages, 40 tube-wells push out unhealthy saline-affected water. This factor was capable of being anticipated as the area is located in the coastal belt.
Now the tube wells do not really serve their purpose. The supply of electricity in the area is precarious. Being devoid of ordinary road facilities; the residents do not have proper medical and ambulance services. Patients have to be carried in contraptions hanging on the shoulders of at least two persons to go to the hospital, the petition contended.
Similarly, basic requirements of education, communication and other healthcare facilities are not available to the residents of the area who have to live in a world of their own and accept deprivation as a part of life. The authorities resort to callous denial of basic amenities to the residents, Tripathy alleged.