Odisha Govt to introduce PESA Bill in next Assembly session: Minister

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 session of the Assembly.

Naik made the announcement in response to a debate on the bill in the Assembly, during which opposition parties, including the BJD and Congress, criticised the state’s BJP government for its lack of commitment to implementing the legislation.

Naik said that Prime Minister Mohan Majhi had promised to bring in the PESA Act in his Independence Day speech and the central government had shown interest in the issue.

“Given the sensitivity of this issue, I intend to convene a meeting with all the scheduled tribal members and other members of the House to discuss it further,” Naik added.

He also said that the PESA law documents have been translated into Odia and Santali and sent to the district magistrates overseeing the PESA regions.

Though the central law was passed by Parliament in 1996, Congress MP Taraprasad Bahinipati pointed out that it has not been implemented in Odisha for 28 years.

He accused both the BJD and the BJP of not upholding the rights of tribal communities over ‘Jal, Jungle and Jamin’ (water, forest and land).

Congress party leader Rama Chandra Kadam criticised both the BJD and the BJP for not passing the bill in the Odisha assembly.

“The central law 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 alleged.

He alleged that the delay in passing the law was an attempt to facilitate the activities of the mining mafia.

BJD member Ganeswar Behera demanded a clear timeline for implementation of the PESA law in Odisha and sought a definitive answer from the minister.

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