Bhubaneswar: BJP activists on Thursday damaged vehicles of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) at Power House chhak while protesting against removal and tearing of party posters.
According to sources, police has detained two activists of the saffron party for their alleged involvement in the vandalism.
The members and workers of BJP have staged a protest alleging BJD members and BMC workers have torn the party posters ahead of national party president Amit Shah’s visit to the State.
Basant Panda, BJP state president, said, “While we are roaming around the city we found our party posters and hoardings are being torn by BMC workers.”
Taking a swipe at the state government over the matter, BJP state general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said, tearing and removing posters and hoardings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP National President Amit Shah, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram by the government machinery at the instances of the BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik reflects the narrow-mindedness of the BJD government. “Such nefarious and mean activities are not found in any state. The chief minister has to apologise the people of the state on behalf of his party for such unfortunate and deplorable incidents,” he demanded.
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Asked about the steps his party is going to take, Harichandan said the BJP till date has resorted to agitations across the state in a democratic manner. “The incident that happened today could have results in violence. But we decided to protest in a democratic manner. We demand the senior officials including the Bhubaneswar Mayor and BMC commissioner, who have instructed their officers to remove the posters and hoardings through WhatsApp message, to tender apology in public for their illegal acts,” he added.
BJP state general secretary Bhrugu Buxtipatra said the manner in which a chief minister has given direction to remove the hoarding in the capital city is utterly unfortunate and deplorable. “If the assurance given by the police commission to take action against those who are involved in the incident, we will intensify our agitation,” he pointed out.
Asked about the matter, BMC Commissioner Krishan Kumar said the BJP has not taken permission to put up posters, hoardings.
“In fact, the state government has made new rules on November 1 this year to identity busy areas in the capital city as no hoarding zone due to heavy traffic rush. Acting on the directive, we had removed posters of other political parties recently,” he added.
Notably, BJP national party president Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Bhubaneswar tomorrow.