London, May 25 (PTI): Chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s aides today insisted there were no plans for a lecture at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) after human rights campaigners alleged that Naveen had pulled out of the lecture scheduled in Brighton on Monday.        

V.K. Pandian, private secretary to the chief minister, said the plan was to share experience and benefit from inputs from IDS experts on malnutrition and poverty reduction in Odisha, which is a major beneficiary of British aid.        

Pandian said Naveen’s interaction with IDS experts would be held at the Indian high commission in London on Monday, while human rights groups such as Survival International criticised the decision to cancel the lecture in Brighton.        

Naveen is on his first foreign trip after becoming chief minister in 2000.        

An IDS spokesman confirmed that Monday’s interaction would be held between Naveen and IDS director Lawrence Haddad and other academics. The spokesman said: “The chief minister of Odisha was expected to visit us on 28 May and give a seminar titled Reforms and Achievements in Odisha. We were informed earlier this week by his office that he could not fit a trip to Brighton into his schedule. Our director and a number of IDS academics will instead meet him in London.”        

Several Indian students, civil servants and activists have studied and conducted research at IDS, which is part of the University of Sussex.

Human rights organisations alleged that the Brighton lecture was cancelled after learning that the event would be attended by activists and students who would question Naveen about alleged violation of tribal rights in Odisha. Some students had reportedly displayed a board with photos of alleged atrocities in Odisha ahead of Naveen’s expected visit to Brighton.        

Survival International’s director Stephen Corry said: “There has been an alarming state-wide abuse of tribal peoples’ rights on Mr Patnaik’s watch.”