Rourkela: Residents of a containment zone here staged a protest Tuesday. They clashed with the police demanding that ‘containment’ restrictions be lifted immediately as they were not getting essential commodities. They alleged that the district or city administration is not doing anything to lighten their woes.
Sources said residents of the Mahtab Road locality here broke police barricades and gathered near the Ring Road. They said that their locality has been declared a ‘containment zone’ for over a month and nothing was being done to normalise the situation. The protests started from around 8.00am in the morning.
When police tried to stop the protesters, the latter resorted to stone pelting. The entire area turned into a battlefield in no time. Police had to fire tear gas to disperse the mob. In the scuffle, 15 policemen also suffered injuries.
The mob then gathered in front of the Plant Site police station to voice their grievances. They met SP KK Siva Subramani and other senior police officials. However, the meeting failed to find a solution to the demands voiced by the protestors.
It should be stated here that restrictions were withdrawn from Mangal Bhawan to Janta Niwas locality and from Madhusudan Marg to Anand Bhawan Lane, Monday night. These areas had been declared ‘buffer zones’ as they were adjoining to the containment zone.
PNN