Rabi Das is an eminent senior journalist born on 25th May, 1947. He completed his graduation from Ravenshaw College in Cuttack in the year 1967. After that, he took to studying law in M.S. Law College in Cuttack. While pursuing his education, he was an active participant in student politics and was once jailed for being involved in student agitation. His jail tenure lasted for one month. He served as the convener of District Youth Congress in Cuttack in 1969. He served as the President of Odisha State Youth Congress from 1971-73.
He became the executive Editor and Co-partner of “Pragativadi”, a weekly newspaper, newly launched in the year 1971. He did an advanced journalism course in 1974 which was sponsored and conducted by Press Institute of India, New Delhi. In 1975, emergency was declared all over India. Press censorship prevailed in the subcontinent and “Pragativadi” strongly opposed it. In spite of his best efforts, he failed to save the weekly newspaper and the police seized his printing press. Meanwhile, he resigned from the membership of Odisha State Youth Congress.
He edited an anti-emergency news bulletin named “Prachira Patra” during the first 6 months of the declaration of emergency. “Pragativadi” was released from police seizure and began reappearing in February 1976. Unfortunately, police again raided the press and Govt ordered pre-censorship of the weekly. The magazine became a daily in 1979 and was shifted to Bhubaneswar. Rabi Das again became its Executive Editor and Partner. He was also in charge of writing the Editorials of his newspaper. He shouldered the responsibility of editing the paper which was published continually till December 1998.
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Rabi Das started publishing another newspaper called “Paryabekhyak” in 1999. He served as the chief Editor of the newspaper, which had a substantial impact on readers. He introduced a mid-day daily called “Ama Rajdhani” in 2006 after entitling the ownership of “Paryabekhyak” to someone else. He filed a case in Supreme Court regarding illegal mining in Odisha in 2010. The CEC called for the closure of illegal mines and asked the Govt of Odisha to collect NPV from the mining lease holders. The Govt of India appointed Justice MB Saha Commission to look upon the matter of illegal mining. The Supreme Court ordered to collect approximately Rupees 25,000 crores from mines owners’ who indulged in illegal mining.
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He has been appearing in different Odia TV channels for the last 25 years, addressing different issues as a political observer and peoples’ voice.
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