Medha Patkar, an environmental activist, and six other persons are formally prohibited by the authorities from entering five villages in Rayagada district of the state of Odisha until the afternoon of August 10. The order, issued by the Rayagada district collector Ashutosh Kulkarni under section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, proscribes Patkar, activist Prafulla Samantara, and four other persons from entering, assembling, addressing and other gatherings as well as participating in all public or quasi-public events within the limits of the Gram Panchayats of Sunger, Adajore, Sindoor Ghati, Talajhiri and Kashipur. This ban takes place between the afternoon of August 8 and the afternoon of the next day, August 10, and they are enforced under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita section 163.
Also, residents of two local groups, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti and Maa Mati Mali Suraksha Manch, have been denied entry into these regions at this period of time.
The order was preceded a day before Chief minister Mohan Majhi was to visit Rayagada who would visit Rayagada on Saturday. It is proposed that the CM will witness World Indigenous Day and hand over to the women beneficiaries some of the funding under the scheme of Subhadra Yojana, as a government welfare scheme that is targeted at empowering women in the region.
The prohibitory order issued by the district administration strictly forbids any type of padayatras (marches), open meetings, press conferences, socio-political meetings and protest rallies by the mentioned persons or their well-known people in the specified Gram Panchayats. To enable the strict implementation, the Superintendent of Police has been instructed to provide a high level of security by adding more deployment of forces, 24-hour surveillance, and, in case of need, preventive imprisonment of the violators to provide peace and order.
It comes after a similar move in June when Medha Patkar and over 20 others were arrested by the Rayagada administration soon after the activist arrived on June 5 to join a protest against bauxite mining of Vedanta Limited in the region. This is due to restrictions that still exist, owing to tensions over environmental and indigenous rights activism in the district.
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