JHARSUGUDA: Vehicular movement on National Highway-49 in Lakhanpur block was disrupted for over six hours on Friday after the citizen’s council blocked the road to reiterate their demand for the division of the block into three parts. It further demanded the declaration of the Lakhanpur tehsil area as a new sub-division.
The protesters blocked the highway at three locations - Kankatura, Lakhanpur Behera Guda chowk and Zone III Dhun Shun Chowk. Late, they submitted a formal charter of demands to the tehsildar outlining the community’s desire for administrative restructuring in their region.
Lakhanpur is the second largest block in the state comprising 33-gram panchayats. The call for block division stems from the ongoing struggles of border areas’ residents to access essential government services and the alleged lack of progress in implementing developmental schemes.