Dharmendra Pradhan, Aparajita Sarangi face protests in Odisha
BHUBANESWAR: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi faced protests from Chhatra Congress and ruling BJD activists respectively at different places here on Saturday.
Chhatra Congress activists showed black flags and raised slogans against the Union Minister while he was in Utkal University to attend the foundation day. When police tried to stop them, the activists entered into a scuffle with the former. Around 22 of the Chhatra Congress activists were detained. President of the State unit Chhatra Congress Yasir Nawaj said that they were protesting against the shortage of faculty members in different departments and deteriorating standards of the Utkal University.
Aparajita faced protests allegedly from ruling BJD activists for the second time in the last three days over the hike in the price of LPG. BJD activists staged demonstration and shouted slogans while the MP was taking out a rally as part of the party’s ‘Jan Sampark Yatra’ in Khanduala slum in Nayapalli area of the city.
In her reaction, Aparajita said she welcomes democratic protests. “People were not protesting but raising problems faced by them. All should work unitedly for the development of Bhubaneswar”, Aparajita said. Everybody including BJP and Congress people can approach her with their problems and she will try to solve them, she added.
Later, the MP moved around the slum area and interacted with the people to know their problems and grievances. Meanwhile, egg attacks against ministers continued in different parts of the State. While eggs were hurled at Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera at Narayantikra village in Balangir district, Health Minister Naba Kishore Das and Minister of State for Sports Tusharkanti Behera faced the wrath of BJP activists while returning from smart health card distribution programme at Nabarangpur.