ROURKELA: At least 40 people, including policemen, were hurt, as members of a minority community on Tuesday resorted to violent protests demanding the lifting of containment order imposed on a particular location in Rourkela city exactly a month ago following the detection of the first Covid-19 positive case.
The locals protested after Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) Commissioner on Monday night issued an order withdrawing restrictions from the buffer zone and also squeezed the size of the containment zone to half.
Sources said the protesters hit the streets at about 2 am in the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday, but they were pacified as the police sought time till Tuesday morning to address their grievances.
Before the administration could take any decision, a strong mob of over 2,000 people dismantled barricades, broke chairs at police camps, and indiscriminately assaulted those who came on their way, and intermittently resorted to stone pelting on police at about 6 am.
At least 40 persons, including policemen, local media persons and protesters were injured. Even as the police resorted to lathi-charge and firing of tear gas shells at about 9.30 am, the violent mob did not stop.
The protesters, however, relented after DIG (Western Range) Kavita Jalan reached at the spot and appealed for peace with the assurance of addressing their grievances.
Sundargarh Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan rushed to the spot and held talks with the senior administrative and police officers to bring the situation under control. "Appropriate action as per law will be taken after assessing the situation," he said.
Palpable tension was continuing amid deployment of additional forces. Earlier, a section of people from the same community had pelted stones on police amid containment restrictions and frequently engaged in skirmishes with police.
Meanwhile, under the new RMC order only half a portion of the earlier containment zone on the southern side of Rourkela's main road from Janata Nivas Lane to AB Lane has been earmarked as containment zone.
The other portion of the containment area on the northern side of the main road and the entire portion of the buffer zone have been freed from restrictions. So far, 20 Covid-19 positive cases have been reported from the containment zone while another connecting locality reported two cases.