Bhubaneswar, Aug. 13: The Supreme Court Yesterday strictly directed the Orissa government on the following grounds that it had “a lot of explaining to do” regarding relief and rehabilitation of the riot-affected in Orissa’s tribal-dominated Kandhamal district.
“You have a lot of explaining to do. Be ready,” Justice Swatanter Kumar told Orissa counsel Suresh Tripathy during a hearing on an intervening petition filed by archbishop Raphel Cheenath. Chief Justice of India (CJI) S.H. Kapadia and Justice S. Radhakrishan were the other two judges on the bench.

The CJI also issued notices on a fresh application filed by Cheenath seeking further directions to the state on rehabilitating those affected in the Kandhamal riots in December 2007 and August 2008.
The application challenges the inadequate compensation granted to the riot affected and the arbitrary and irrational methodology employed in selecting the recipients and assessing the damage to private and public properties. It indicates that the State Govt. has miserably failed in restoration and rehabilitation activities more appropriately to the communal violence affected victims of 2007 & 2008 in Kandhamal.
Cheenath has prayed SC to direct Orissa State Govt. to immediately undertake re-survey work among 246 riot victim families and report to the SC who'll decide the adequate ratio of compensation and accordingly direct the State Govt. to provide the same to the deserving ones. As Orissa State Govt. did not include in their last rehab programme 230 damaged and demolished Churches and provided any aid, he has also prayed SC to direct them to include and estimate the quantum of the damage and accordingly provide rehab facilities soon. Precisely, he has prayed before the SC for an appropriate, fair and justified Survey work of the riot affected victims of Kandhamal and provide them adequate rehab assistance and compensation early.
Cheenath's additional demands for Kandhamal riot victims as prayed before the SC are;
1. To exempt the education cess ( school and tuition fees ) of the riot affected children,
2. To give sufficient compensation to the riot injured persons,
3. To give/rehabilitate the widows who lost their husbands due to the riot, permanent Govt. jobs or widow allowances,
4. To give pension to the riot affected old aged victims,
5. To provide BPL & NREGA Card to all the riot affected families.
The bench indicated that the court would hear the petition at length two weeks after the Orissa government responded to the court notice. Citing two civil society surveys, Cheenath sought a rehabilitation package on the lines of that given to the Sikhs affected in 1984 and the Muslims affected in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
He also sought a survey of the affected people and the damage done to church property to properly estimate and compensate the church for its loss. The new application sought professional assessment of damage to houses and waiving of loans given under the PM’s Rozgar Yojna to families whose shops had been destroyed during the riots.
It also sought ex gratia for the 27 deaths in the riots, bicycles for the victims, replacement of household articles looted and ransacked. The application argued that efforts should be made to ensure security for those who wanted to return to the area.
It claimed that 10,000 families were still unable to return or had migrated to other states. Efforts must also be made to provide compensation to the families that are still living in tents. Moreover, the package should include relief to the widows, pension for the aged, the dependants of those dead and exemption of tuition fees to the affected children.
It sought BPL and NREGA cards for all the riot-affected, irrespective of their pre-violence status. The riots affected approximately 50,000 people as per the church’s estimates.