Three-member team tours Orissa's riot-hit Kandhamal

Bhubaneswar: A three-member central government team led by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar yesterday reached Orissa's Kandhamal district to take stock of the situation in the region where at least 38 people were killed and thousands rendered homeless in communal violence in recent months.

The delegation, which also includes Tribal Affairs Minister P.R. Kyndiah and Social Justice Minister Meira Kumar, visited a relief camp at Raikia, a district police official said. They are to visit relief camps in Tikabali and Nuagaon, he said.

The official added that they would also travel to the ashram where Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda and four of his aides were killed, allegedly by Maoists.

The team is to talk to victims, religious leaders, district officials and police officials.

Pawar, Kyndiah and Kumar arrived in Bhubaneswar Monday, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the state secretariat and discussed measures taken by the state government in the area.

Kandhamal district, some 200 kilometres from here, witnessed large-scale communal violence, mostly attacks on Christians and their places of worship, after the August 23 killing of Laxmanananda and his aides.

Though Maoist rebels claimed responsibility for the killings, radical Hindus hold Christians responsible, despite denials by Christian organisations.