BARIPADA: Irked over irregular supply of water to houses in Wards 11 and 12 of Narpada here, people staged protest against Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) between Balasore Golei and Palobani Golei. The protestors disrupted traffic for at least two hours on Tuesday. The protestors laid pipes and bamboos on the road at Station Bazaar railway level crossing area as a mark of protest.
Commuters heading towards Sunamuhin, Badasahi, Palobani, and Balasore Golei faced a lot of inconvenience.On being informed, two teams of Baripada town police rushed to the spot to pacify the protestors. "The authorities of Baripada Municipality and PHED didn't resolve our problems despite repeated requests," said Sangita Das, a protestor.
"Though a water tank is barely half a kilometre from the wards, piped water has not been supplied to the households for the past week," they added. Despite paying tax to the department concerned, around 500 families of theses wards were allegedly deprived of the facility. Protestors claimed that ward councillors had also turned a blind eye to their crisis.Meanwhile, Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Baripada Abhimanyu Nayak, Baripada town IIC Ashok Kumar Nayak along with chief engineer of PHED PM Parida pacified the protestors. Subsequently, the protest was withdrawn after Parida assured them of ensuring regular supply of water to the these wards. Initially, the households would be provided with water via tanker. (Pic in PSTNPIX: Protest24)