PATNAGARH: A month after the caste conflict in Lathore, the Director of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Dibakar Basak visited the village on Wednesday. Around 38 thatched houses, belonging to Dalits, were set afire allegedly by upper caste people at Lathore following a clash between two Dalit youths and as many youths of an upper caste family over an incident of theft of a shirt from a cloth store last month. Speaking to mediapersons, Basak said the incident had exposed the inefficiency of the district administration right from providing security to payment of compensation. He said the ` 1 lakh compensation announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was insufficient. “In a welfare state, it is unfortunate that the State Government could not provide security or dispatch senior officials to probe the issue,” he said. Basak, however, did not visit the spot where the houses were set afire.Later, he visited the Durga Sri High School which has been converted into a camp to house the victims whose houses were set afire. Although the affected villagers presented him a memorandum, he refused to accept it.Dhenkanal: Basak, had earlier directed Dhenkanal district administration to ensure immediate rehabilitation of the fire victims of Kamedhenukote village in Sadar block.He had expressed dissatisfaction over police administration’s failure to nab the main accused Pratap Swain and his accomplices, whose names figure in the FIR. Houses of SC community in the village were allegedly set afire after Swain’s defeat in the first phase panchayat election. Basak also held discussions with Collector Bishnu Prasad Panda and SP Satish Gajbhiye here.He reportedly asked the administrative officials to initiate adequate measures for rehabilitation of the victims and extend cooked food provision for another month.He also asked for seizure of property of the accused.
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