Odisha ministerial team submits report to CM on Malkangiri violence

Bhubaneswar/Malkangiri, Dec 12 (PTI) A day after visiting a violence-hit village in Odisha's Malkangiri district, a ministerial team on Friday submitted a report on the ground situation to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.

The team, comprising Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo and MSME, Fisheries & Animal Resources Development Minister Gokulananda Mallik, on Thursday visited MV-26 village, where irate tribals had vandalised the houses of another community after a headless body of a 51-year-old tribal woman was found.

She was allegedly killed and her body thrown into Poteru River over a land dispute.

The ministerial team also submitted to the CM memoranda submitted by the two communities.

Violence continued on December 7 and 8, even as a large number of people from a non-tribal community fled the area.

However, the situation has been brought under control with the deployment of a large number of security forces, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), southern division, Sangram Keshari Mohapatra said.

He visited the affected village and monitored relief and rehabilitation work.

Both Singh Deo and Mallik visited the village and spoke to the residents and assured them that the government would ensure non-escalation of violence.

"Maintaining peace is the priority of the government. We met the people of both groups and they assured us of maintaining peace," Mallik said after submitting their report to the chief minister.

The ministers had also held a high-level review meeting at the district headquarters town of Malkangiri to assess the root cause of the violence.

Meanwhile, normalcy returned to the village even as prohibitory orders remained clamped and internet services suspended for the last four days. The administration has started relief and rehabilitation work at MV-26 village after many people returned to their houses, officials said.

The administration has provided cooked and dry food to the violence-affected people whose houses have been damaged, they said.

Rehabilitation is underway in MV-26 village under the direct supervision of district Collector Somesh Kumar Upadhyay, they said.

The electricity department has restored power connections to the houses damaged in the violence. PTI COR AAM AAM ACD