The Biju Janata Dal Legislator from Balasore Sadar, Swaroop Kumar Das had to face an awkward situation on Thursday when two local Sarpanchs and hundreds of their supporters created ruckus at the block office where the MLA and the Block chairman were distributing old-age pensions to the beneficiaries.
As per reports, Das along with the Block chairman and other officials were in a meeting at the Balasore Sadar Block office when the Sarpanchs of Kasipada and Bahabalpur Panchayats barged in and asked why they were not informed about the distribution programme.
Heated argument ensued which later turned into a scuffle between the supporters of Das and the Sarpanchs.
Anita Behera, the Sarpanch of Kasipada said, “I asked the BDO the day before about the pension distribution, but he feigned ignorance. When we reached the Block office today, we saw the MLA distributing pensions without informing us. When we confronted the MLA, he hurled abuses at us and asked us to get out.”
Seeing the situation getting out of control, the Sahadevkhunta Police was called in which brought the situation under control.
However, Das took the incident an insult to his stature and sat on dharna in front of the BDO’s chamber demanding action against the Sarpanchs. At the same time, both the Sarpanchs sat on dharna too claiming it was an injustice to the people’s representatives.
Speaking about the incident, Das said, “We were in a meeting at the office when the Sarpanch and her supporters stormed the room and created ruckus. They even wanted to take the BSSO with them. It did not end there. They then scuffled with us outside the office when we came out after the meeting.”
BDO Narendra Khamari, who rushed to the spot to pacify both the parties, said, “We do not have capacity neither the infrastructure here at the office to accommodate all the 37 Sarpanchs and 37 Panchayat Samiti members. The issue pertains to the MLA distributing pensions to the newly enrolled beneficiaries. I will talk to both the parties and try to arrive at a logical conclusion.”