Families ostracised for moving court

Odisha villagers bar them from utilising community facilities for last 1 month

Two families of Orali village under Tihidi block of Bhadrak district have been reportedly ostracised from the village and barred from utilising community facilities for last one month for taking legal route to settle a land-related dispute.

The village head has allegedly barred the two families of Bikram Behera and Rabindra Behera from speaking to other villagers, practice farming, buy groceries from village shops, send their cows to graze in grasslands and even offer puja in the village temple.

According to reports, Bikram and Rabindra had some land dispute with a co-villager. A village meeting was also called in this regard but when the matter could not be solved, they approached court to finalise the matter.

However, in order to teach the duo a lesson for moving to court when the matter was under consideration

● with the village heads, a group of villagers ruled in favour of ostracising the two families.

“Without even calling us to attend the meeting, the villagers decided ostracise us. They said we are not allowed talk to anyone or visit their houses. We were barred from doing agriculture and even banned from utilising the village water bodies,” alleged Rabindra

“Our rival group called the meeting which was attended by some villagers. We were scolded for registering case to solve a land dispute and was later directed us to stay aloof,” said Bikram.

The two families further alleged that though they intimated the matter to the Sarpanch in written, no action was taken in this regard.