Construction of Kusei bridge near Belabahali continues amid tight security

Anandpur: A day after a violent clash between the locals and the police, construction of Kusei bridge continued near Belabahali today amid tight security.

Reports said though the situation in the area is normal, palpable tension still prevails in Belabahali village.

Sources said the people of Belabahali village are in a meeting today to decide their future course of action.

Talking to OTV over phone today, Prabhakar Sahu, one of the protesters of Belabahali village, said the Additional SP had told the villagers to submit their demands in writing which will be looked into by the district administration.

“Accordingly, we had submitted him a 5-point charter of demands to him yesterday and he told us to wait till the arrival of the district collector after which he would be able to give them the detailed report. After two hours, I again contacted the ASP over phone and he told me that he has apprised the Collector of your demands and he has agreed to look into our demands. After getting information from him, we called back the villagers from the construction site. Thereafter, we did not go to the spot and misbehave with the police. Before returning to our village, we had told the ASP to take back the police force from the spot and don’t allow them to enter our village,” Sahu added.

He further claimed that not a single policeman has been injured.

Asked about the matter, Keonjhar collector N Thirumala Nayak said the district administration would examine the demands of the villagers. “We will try our best to solve their problems at our end. If the demands are out of our reach, we will inform the higher authorities,” he added.

Also read: Protests prompt dist admin to halt Belbahali bridge work

Tension resurfaced once again in the construction site yesterday as locals clashed with police. While the construction on the Kusei bridge began with work being undertaken on an approach road from Anandpur side, locals protesting the construction of the bridge clashed with the police.

Police had to lob tear gas shells and resort to lathi charge to disperse the mob.