Samantara said to Sabrangindia that he was in Rayagada to attend a press meet organised by Youth Congress. But before the press meet started he went missing from the hotel he was staying in. Men claiming themselves to be ‘police’ without identification, used the gamcha he uses to bind his hands behind his back blind folded him and drove him around over 200 kilometres. It was only when news of his abduction spread and pressure was exerted by citizens on the bureaucracy and government that he was freed in Behrampur. He has filed an FIR on the abduction.

As per reports, Samantara was in Rayagada to attend a press meet organised by Youth Congress. But before the press meet started he went missing from the hotel he was staying in.

Noted environmental rights defender and @goldmanprize winner Prafulla Samantara has been reportedly abducted from his hotel room by plainclothes police. He was against the ongoing clampdown on Adivasis in South Odisha who are opposing forceful bauxite mining. Please amplify https://t.co/eK5EMqC4vx pic.twitter.com/lUOKB7Zqrd

— Indigenous Peoples’ Land, Life and Knowledge (@IndigenousLLK) August 29, 2023

Speaking about Samantara, State Coordinator of Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), Narendra Mohanty said, “We suspect the police have abducted him to suppress the voice he raised against illegal usurping of tribal and forest land. This is a tactic the State government has devised to crush the uprising against it.”

V Srinivas, the owner of the hotel from where Samantara went missing said, “Though I was not in the hotel when he went missing, what I heard, the police have taken him away.”

Asked about his whereabouts, he said some miscreants kidnapped him from the hotel in Rayagada and dropped him in Berhampur. After he was found in Berhampur, Samantara told the local media, “Just 20 minutes before the press conference, three unidentified persons came inside my room and took away my mobile phone. They called a vehicle, gagged me and tied my hands after I screamed for help. Then they drove me for one and a half hours before dropping me here in Berhampur.”

Away from ‘national news’, 25 adivasi, dalit movement leaders from across South Odisha have been arrested in a sweeping crackdown by Govt. for resisting destructive mining projects of Adani, Vedanta, Hindalco. See Press Release of Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangathan. #FREEALL pic.twitter.com/8mprB9mKW5

— Meera Sanghamitra (@meeracomposes) August 27, 2023

“Initially I suspected that some goons of the mining company might be behind my abduction, but now I suspect that was the police,” he alleged.

Samantara has been a spokesperson for the Dangaria Kandha indigenous people, in their protest against plans for bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hill range.

Related:

25 persons arrested in southern Odisha in the last three weeks through police-corporate nexus

The post Noted rights defender and environmental rights activist, Prafulla Samantara abducted from hotel room in Rayagada, later found in Berhampur: Orissa appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Last week, following the Odisha High Court’s order that stranded migrants be brought into the state only after their Covid-19 tests were conducted in the host states and only those testing negative be allowed to return to Odisha, the Surat district administration cancelled departure of trains from Surat to Odisha. This created a huge unrest among the migrants stranded outside the state wanting to return home and seeing this, the Supreme Court stayed the Orissa High Court’s order.

So far, almost 55,916 stranded Odias have returned to Odisha and over lakh more are set to return during the next few weeks. However, even now lakhs of migrants are stuck in Surat, Bangalore and many other states waiting to return home. In light of this, Prafulla Samantara, President of the Lok Shakti Abhiyan, environmental activist and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize (2017) has written to Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha appealing him to take more action for justice to Odia migrant workers.

In his letter, Samantara says that he would like to draw the CM’s attention to make his positive actions more effected and necessary arrangements for migrant workers of Odisha in different states. He writes, “Even now there are lakhs of Odia workers in Surat, Bangalore and many cities of different states who had beenwaiting to get trains to return to their homes. Still many of them are being deprived of getting any food or ration, even they are not getting free train tickets to come.”

He adds that though the Central government promised to cover 85 percent of the ticket charge for the migrants, the same has not been implemented. He also mentioned that the reserved train to Odisha was cancelled as the Ganjam district administration did not give clearance.

Urging the CM to take action, he wrote, “Therefore your intervention is necessary to pressurize the railway ministry to provide the free train for our workers of Odisha. I have received a letter along with photocopies of booked tickets from Odia workers in Surat of Gujarat which informed that they needed more trains from Surat to come.” He also requested the CM to direct the government of Odisha to provide transport to the workers who reached the borders of Odisha on foot from other states.

He also suggested that if the return of the workers is delayed, the state government should provide each worker with at least Rs. 2,000 per month for their food. On return to the state, he suggested that people should be asked to home quarantine.

Another suggestion Samantara put forward was that “they should be scrutinized in quarantine centers after 7 days of staying healthy and that unaffected people be freed and allowed to stay inside their houses so that people returning to the state from outside can be accommodated in the limited quarantine centre waiting for early action.”

Prafulla Samantara’s entire letter may be read below.

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Migrants may go back home after trade union petitions against government in Karnataka HC

The post Take more action for justice to Odia migrant workers: Activist Prafulla Samantara to Odisha CM appeared first on SabrangIndia.