Odisha govt to introduce PESA Act: Naik

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Panchayati Raj Minister Rabi Narayan Naik on Wednesday said the State government will introduce the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act in the next Assembly session.

Naik made the announcement in response to a debate on the Act in the Assembly, during which the Opposition parties, including the BJD and Congress, criticised the BJP government for its perceived lack of commitment to implementthe legislation.

Naik said Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had pledged to introduce the PESA Act in his Independence Day speech and mentioned that the Central government had shown interest in the matter.”Given the sensitivity of this issue, I plan to convene a meeting with all Scheduled Tribe MLAs and other members of the House to discuss it further,” Naik added.

He also said PESA Act documents have been translated into Odia and Santali and sent to the district magistrates overseeing the PESA regions.Despite the Central Act being passed by Parliament in 1996, Congress member Taraprasad Bahinipati highlighted that it has not been implemented in Odisha for 28 years.He accused both the BJD and BJP of failing to uphold the rights of tribal communities over ‘Jal, Jungle, and Jamin’ (water, forest, and land).

Congress Legislature Party leader Rama Chandra Kadam criticised both the BJD and BJP for not passing the Act in the Odisha Assembly.”The Central Act was passed during the Congress tenure, but the BJD-BJP coalition government from 2000 to 2009, followed by the BJD government under Naveen Patnaik, failed to implement it,” Kadam said. He alleged that the delay in passing the Act was an attempt to facilitate the operations of the mining mafia.

The BJD member, Ganeswar Behera, demanded a clear timeline for the implementation of the PESA Act in Odisha, seeking a definitive response from the minister.