Orissa: Order against Church relief stayed

Supreme Court on Monday cleared way for the Church and NGO organizations to freely assist Christians affected by the rioting and arson in Orissa's Kandhamal district, in December, last year.

The order passed by the Kandhamal Collector, banning all religious institutions and NGO's from distributing relief, was stayed by a bench consisting of Justices H.K. Sema and Markandey Katju.

The archbishop of Cuttack–Bhubaneswar, Raphael Cheenath, challenged the order in the Orissa High Court, which refused to intervene.

In his appeal, the archbishop stated that even though it was over three months since the outbreak of violence in Kandhamal, the state government was yet to announce any relief.

He said the compensation package of the government, which was a measly Rs 10,000, was inadequate compared to the losses and the suffering of the people, who even do not have a place to rest.

Only three relief camps had been set up so far, he claimed. “Out of these, two were closed. The condition in the remaining was awful without proper food, drinking water or medicines. Two persons had died in the relief camp on January 15 due to lack of medical attention,” Cheenath claimed.

“The attitude of the state government is most unreasonable in that it has not constructed a single house and has given compensation and a few blankets to a handful of victims only to make a pretence that some relief is being provided,” he said.

The Orissa Government claimed that it had taken all steps on its own for providing relief and the ban on NGOs/charitable institutions was essential to prevent ill–will between different communities.

The All India Christian Council claimed that the December 2007 attacks on Christians were not spontaneous but preplanned by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindutva groups.

It is alleged that the VHP activists fanned the pre–existing tension in the region, amongst people of different caste and tribes, on the issue of conversion. The Kandhamal district has 600,000 people of which 150,000 are Christians.