50 Odisha farmers hurt during stir
The lathicharge was ordered when the farmers were having their lunch on the road itself.
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha police on Wednesday resorted to lathicharge on farmers who were staging a road blockade on National Highway 316 alleging the state government’s apathy towards farmers’ community.
Over fifty farmers, many of them senior citizens, allegedly sustained injuries in the police action.
According to reports, activists of Satyabadi Nilachal Krushak Mahasangh (SNKM) were staging protest on the NH near Satyabadi block office demanding fulfillment of their 90-point charter of demands.
In order to facilitate vehicular movement which was disrupted due to the blockade as hundreds of vehicles remained stranded on both sides of the busy road, the police personnel lathicharged the activists.
The lathicharge was ordered when the farmers were having their lunch on the road itself.
“The attack on the farmers is highly condemnable. When the peasants are asking for actual price of their produces, the government is suppressing their voice by using brute force. People will reply to this barbaric attack in the coming panchayat polls,” said BJP Bhubaneswar president Harekrushna Khuntia.
The police defended its action saying the farmers had not taken permission to stage road blockade.
“The protesting farmers had not obtained required permission from the police administration for the road blockade. Puri-Bhubaneswar is a major road. Hundreds of tourists travel on this route everyday. We just dispersed them to clear the road,” sub-divisional police officer Dilip Tripathy said.