4 Injured as Guards, Workers Clash

Four persons including two security guards were injured in a clash on the premises of the Tata Steel plant at Kalinga Nagar on Monday.

JAJPUR: Four persons including two security guards were injured in a clash on the premises of the Tata Steel plant at Kalinga Nagar on Monday.

Trouble started when thousands of contractual workers of the plant staged a dharna in front of the office of vice-president (engineering) RR Jha, demanding payment of their dues.

The private security personnel, deployed in the campus, intervened leading to a heated exchange of words between the agitators and the security guards.

Soon, the security guards resorted to lathicharge to disperse the crowd and the agitators retaliated by pelting stones at them. Subsequently, the security guards opened fire injuring two of the agitating workers, said Kalinga Nagar Additional SP PK Sahanai. Two security personnel were also injured in stone pelting.

All the four were admitted to a local hospital and one of the injured workers, Mahendra Patra (34), was later shifted to SCB Medical in Cuttack after his condition deteriorated. Patra sustained bullet injuries on his neck, hand and leg. No FIR has been filed by either of the groups.

The ASP, however, blamed the plant management for the incident. He said though the workers had earlier given in writing to Jha that their dues should be cleared, the latter took no step.

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