JAGATSINGHPUR:Two Government officials were injured in an attack by the Congress workers during the bandh at Biridi block. The officials were Block Development Officer (BDO) Rabindra Kumar Sabat and a clerk in the block office, Artabandhu Swain.
On Friday morning, the protestors barged into the block office at Biridi and asked the officials to close it down protesting alleged mismanagement in Lord Jagannath’s ‘Brahma Parivartan’ rituals. When the block officials refused to pay heed to their demand, the Congress workers threw away Government files, ransacked the office and attacked the BDO and clerk. Both the officials were rushed to the local health centre where BDO Sabat was discharged after first aid. Clerk Swain had to be shifted to SCB Medical at Cuttack as his condition was critical.
IIC of Biridi police station, Ranjan Mallick said a case has been registered by the BDO and police are on the look out for the accused.
The protesters also ransacked the SVM College at Jagatsinghpur after they found lecturers holding classes despite the bandh call.
Even as the bandh was total throughout the district, it did not affect production in various industrial units. Cargo operation was normal in Paradip Port. Traffic Manager, Paradip Port Trust, Damodar Nayak said there was no disruption in cargo operation as loading and unloading was done in six vessels on Friday.
In the morning though, protesters picketed in front of the PPT main gate preventing workers from entering the port.
In two major fertiliser factories - IFFCO and PPL - production was not stalled, but transportation of fertiliser was affected as train and truck services were paralysed.
While work on the oil refinery project of IOCL at Paradip was also not affected, construction at Essar Steel Plant site had to be stopped as Congress workers did not allow labourers to enter the site. Thousands of trucks were stranded on Chandikhol-Paradip NH and several goods and passenger trains stopped on the Paradip-Cuttack railway line.
Dhenkanal: Irate Congress workers burnt tyres and blocked the Dhenkanal-Kamakshyanagar road on Friday. Party workers also ransacked Government offices in the town.
They barged into the Municipality office besides that of the District Education Officer, PWD, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) and destroyed furniture. This despite the fact that the administration had beefed up security to prevent any untoward situation.
Additional SP Anil Kumar Dash and Dhenkanal SDPO Raj Kishore Dora said barring these incidents, the bandh was peaceful in the district. Vehicular traffic was brought to a grinding halt by the agitators.
Angul: A group of 25 Congress workers ransacked Nalco office here during the bandh. They stormed into the office in the morning and ransacked the administrative building even as it was guarded by the Central Security Forces. No FIR has been filed in this regard so far.
The agitating Congressmen stopped vehicular traffic on NH-55 for three hours by burning tyres and blocked movement of trains at the railway station till nine of them were arrested by police. All the industrial establishments like NTPC, Nalco, JSPL, Jindal Thermal Power Plant functioned normally, while production and dispatch in all the 10 coal mines of Talcher was affected.
Keonjhar: The 12-hour bandh was peaceful at Barbil, Joda, Anandpur, Champua, Banspal, Telkoi and other places of Keonjhar district. Train services were hit as Congress workers obstructed Keonjhar- Bhubaneswar first passenger and Barbil-Puri express at Keonjhar railway station. Several goods train were also stopped by the bandh supporters at different railway stations.
District Congress president Banabihari Pahi, PCC secretary Alok Mishra, Congress leader Sangram Das, former MP Madhav Sardar, Ranjan Swain and Town Congress president Basanta Das staged a demonstration in front of collectorate.
While all Government institutions remained closed, movement of vehicles was disrupted. Around 100 trucks with national permit were stranded on either side of NH-49 and 215. Senior Congress leader Nikunja Bihari Mishra led the agitators at Anandpur while at Barbil, they were led by Kshetramohan Mahanta and at Telkoi block headquarter former MLA Pranaballava Nayak took charge. Senior police officers were camping in different parts of the district.
Salepur: A total of 255 Congress workers were arrested from different blocks of Cuttack district but no untoward incident was reported, said Cuttack SP(Rural) Gurdas Kundu.
Roads were blocked in different blocks. The Congress workers also picketed at some places and forcefully shut down shops, Government offices and colleges which were functioning on the day. Congress legislator Prakash Chandra Behera led the agitators.