Bhubaneswar, Apr 12 (PTI) The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has issued an arrest warrant against Keonjhar Collector Ashish Thakare for failing to appear before the panel despite repeated summons.

The NCST in a letter titled “Warrant of Arrest of Witness” has asked Odisha DGP Sunil Bansal to “arrest and bring” the Keonjhar Collector before the commission in New Delhi.

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The NCST action came after Thakare failed to appear for the commission's hearing in the state capital on April 4.

The commission since September 2021 had been issuing several summons to the Collector to attend the hearing, but he did not respond.

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The district collector was summoned in a matter of non-payment of compensations and employment benefits to one Dara Singh Khutia under land acquisition by the ISLF Ltd. The petitioner has been a resident of Lahanda village in Keonjhar district.

The statutory body for the tribals has asked the DGP to apprise it about the steps being taken in this regard by 11 am on April 13.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)