Ministers' team to visit Kandhamal tomorrow

NEW DELHI: A ministerial team headed by Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar will visit violence-hit Kandhamal in Orissa on November 18. The team comprising T R Baalu, P R Kyndiah and Meira Kumar will visit Jalespeta ashram, where VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others were gunned down by miscreants on the evening of August 23. The team will also visit the worst affected Tikabali and Raikia blocks during its visit to Kandhamal. Apart from government officials, the team members would also interact with the affected people.

The central team���s visit comes in the wake of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh���s offer of financial help to reconstruct the churches and homes vandalised during the anti-Christian attacks in the state. The prime minister had offered financial help when Samuel Kobiya, general secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) met him in New Delhi last month. Different Christian groups had drawn Mr Singh���s attention towards the alleged harassment of Christians.

Kandhamal district saw large-scale attacks on Christians and their places of worship, after the August 23 killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmanananda and four of his aides. Though Maoist rebels have claimed responsibility for the killings, Hindu groups hold Christians responsible. At least, 38 people have been killed in the violence that has left more than 20,000 homeless. Around 11,000 people are still living in relief camps.