The two men profiled here were killed because they worked to take the government rural employment scheme to people for whom it is meant

A crusader who fought corruption and took up cudgels against usury and illicit liquor, Orissa's tribal leader Narayan Hareka died a premature and mysterious death on May 9. His blood-splattered body, with the right cheek crushed and an eye hanging out of its socket, was found on the outskirts of Narayanpatna town in Koraput district, some 30 km from his native village Kambivalsa where he was worshipped as a hero.

The police claim it was an accident but Hareka's wife Kantamani and hundreds of his followers allege that the naib sarpanch of the Borigi panchayat in Narayanpatna block was murdered (see box: Foul play?).
   

"I know it's murder. Liquor brewers bore a grudge against him. He was also fighting moneylenders and demanding pattas (land deeds) for tribals," says Kantamani. "He had made many enemies."

Ever ready to fight corruption, Hareka's latest cause was the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (nregs).

       
  Foul play?   
On the day of his death, he had planned to meet the block development officer in connection with irregularities in the scheme. As the Narayanpatna block convenor of the Orissa Adivasi Manch (oam), a network of organizations working for tribals' rights, he conducted a survey in Narayanpatna and its adjoining areas a few months ago, revealing that 34 per cent nregs job cards had not been distributed.

In December 2007, he led a gherao of Asada panchayat and the Gudari block office in the neighbouring Rayagada district, protesting the delay in the distribution of job cards. And surely it had an impact. "Until then only 40 per cent of the people had been provided job cards but after our agitation 90 per cent got the cards," says Dibakar Sabar, Hareka's comrade-in-arms and Rayagada district coordinator of oam.

oam activists allege that while people were being kept in the dark about the scheme, contractors were minting money by misusing job cards. It was his battle against this evil that turned Hareka, 45, into a thorn in contractors' side, many of whom were also into moneylending and the illicit liquor business, and had grabbed tribal land.

Hareka's campaign against moneylenders began in the 1980s when he was a young man in his twenties. Angry liquor brewers once beat him up in 1989 but he remained undaunted. In 1990, he launched a movement against illicit liquor and alienation of tribal land by moneylenders. Campaigners led by Hareka destroyed country liquor breweries in Narayanpatna and adjoining areas. In the early 1990s, Hareka was arrested in connection with the campaign. "It is largely because of his efforts that country liquor bhattis have disappeared from this area," says Kantamani, former naib sarpanch of Borigi.

Tribal men in this part of Orissa drink heavily, often on borrowed money. "The rate of interest is as high as 100 per cent," says oam state convenor Bidulata Huika, who has closely observed Hareka’s work. When the borrowers are unable to repay the money, as happens in most cases, they are forced to hand over their land to moneylenders. Earlier protests against usurers were unorganized, but Hareka united them and became their voice. Under his leadership, two hectares (ha) of tribal land was released in Chitraguda village in 1989-90, while another 3.2 ha was recovered in Manjeriguda under Nangalbeda panchayat.

Several of Hareka's adversaries mistook him to be close to the Maoists in Koraput. "This is because extremists are also fighting illicit liquor and challenging the moneylenders but Narayan never had anything to do with them," says Sabar.

Narayan Hareka's refusal to make compromises won him admirers beyond oam activists and poor tribals. Even Borigi's Village Labour Leader  responsible for supervising nregs work sites  Bankim Choudhary, considered close to moneylenders, admits Hareka was an uncompromising live-wire who stamped out the scourge of country liquor from the area.

In the words of Borigi's sarpanch Huika Laxmi, Hareka was the messiah of poor tribals. And that's what Hareka's school-going son wants to be and his two daughters idolize him for.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20080630&filename=news&sec_id=50&sid=46

---