Paradip: With urban local body elections are round the corner, people of some wards in Paradip municipality are upset over lack of basic facilities.
According to sources, residents of ward no-5, particularly people of Balijhari slum, have decided to not allow members of the political parties to enter the ward over job related issues.
As per the poll schedule announced by the State Election Commission (SEC), filing of nominations will be conducted from March 2 to 7. Elections to Paradip municipality will be held March 24.
Meanwhile, frontline leaders of all three major political parties – BJD, BJP and Congress – are in a hurry and have started hectic parleys to pick the right candidates.
People of Balijhari held a meeting and decided to oppose entry of political leaders to their area. They have formed a 26-member committee with Bapi Sarkhel being made its advisor.
The committee was named as “Ama Samparka Ama Ekata’. The locals decided that one of them would be chosen as an independent candidate to contest elections and no political party would be allowed to field any candidate.
“No political party will be allowed to the ward,” Dipak Swain, a member of the committee.
Sahadev Senapati, a resident, said a frontline BJD leader of the slum was working in a PSU here as a contractual worker, but the contractual agency laid him off without any reason.
PNN