Normal life hit in Odisha town as BJP observes bandh over leaders arrest
Normal life was disrupted in Odishas Deogarh town on Monday owing to a 12-hour bandh observed by opposition BJP in protest against local MLA Subhas Panigrahis arrest over alleged assault of a block development officer.
Saffron party leaders staged a dharna outside Deogarh police station, demanding that Tileibani BDO Krushnachandra Dalapati be arrested instead for “misbehaviour” with the legislator.
The agitators claimed that the local police acted on the BDOs FIR while ignoring the complaint filed by the BJP leader.
Panigrahi along with his supporters had allegedly thrashed the BDO for responding to the local MLA on Saturday. He was arrested by the Deogarh police the day after from his official residence in Bhubaneswar and produced before the local court, which sent him to judicial custody.
The legislator complained of uneasiness following which he was admitted to district headquarters hospital in Deogarh.
“The police acted at the behest of the ruling BJD. I was arrested without any inquiry being made in the case. This is a clear case of political vendetta as I had raised several issues of concern in the recently concluded Budget session of the Assembly,” the MLA alleged from his hospital bed.
During the day, vehicular movement came to a standstill in Deogarh town, and shops and businesses largely remained shut in view of the strike call. Emergency services and vehicles carrying students to exam centres were excluded from the purview of the bandh, said BJP leader Mohan Majhi.
The partys state president, Samir Mohanty, told reporters in Bhubaneswar that “anarchy had been prevailing” in the state.
“How can the police arrest a peoples representative without any inquiry, just on the basis of a false allegation made by an officer?” he stated. The Congress, however, held a parallel demonstration, demanding dismissal of the BJP MLA. Members of the party alleged that the BJP MLA was “busy with his business activities and not bothered about solving local problems”.
In a related development, a delegation of the Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) Association met Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra in Bhubaneswar and sought measures to ensure safety of officers working in every nook and corner of the state. “We urged Mohapatra to make sure that out officers engaged in developmental activities across the state get to work in a safe environment, OAS Association secretary JR Mishra added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)