By IANS
Bhubaneswar : A resident of a village in Orissa has been ostracised and persecuted by the rest of the village for 25 years for not paying a Rs.10,000 fine imposed on him by the village panchayat.
Banamali Sahani of Khileri village of Kendrapara district, about 150 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, had a dispute with other villagers over a plot of land. Sahani did not pay when the panchayat fined him Rs.10,000 over the issue in 1982.
Since then Sahani and his family are not allowed to take water from the village tube wells, or use the village roads, grazing grounds or ponds. They are barred from social functions, temples, even the village school.
Sahani told IANS that he has one acre of land but cannot farm it as he does not get water from the canal nor are any labourers allowed to work in his field.
Villagers have warned the labourers not to work in his field and whoever disobeys the order has to pay a fine of Rs.50 every time.
The matter came to a head Sep 19 when Sahani’s mother died and villagers did not allow him to use the village cremation ground for her funeral.
Sahani had to cremate her in his own garden.
Villagers also tried to create hurdles in the ritual post-funeral meal by denying him permission to use the village school grounds for the purpose.
He approached the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Balikuda, Pradipta Kishore Mohanty, who directed the school headmaster and the village education committee to grant the necessary permission to Sahani.
But the other villagers organised another feast in the same campus at the same time.
Sahani has aired his grievances to the district collector and the superintendent of police, but without any response.
Social activist B. Patra says that Sahani is a lawyer who keeps himself away from village politics and that irks the other villagers.
Recently, the head of the village panchayat Tukuna Malick condemned the actions of the villagers who ostracised Sahani and said that a few villagers had agreed to lift the ban on him. Negotiations have now started to resolve the issue.