HC dismisses PIL; says no change in location, design of Kusei bridge

Cuttack: In a major blow to the residents of Belabahali in Keonjhar district opposing the construction of a bridge on Kusei river, the High Court today set aside the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a local outfit saying that the petition does not bear any public interest.

While refusing to interfere in the decision of the technical committee on the construction, a bench of chief justice Vineet Saran and justice BR Sarangi also clarified that there would be no change in the design and location of the said construction.

Belabahali Anchalika Surakhya Manch, a local outfit spearheading the agitation, had filed a PIL in the High Court in this matter seeking shifting of the location and alteration in the design of the bridge.

Locals had been agitating for the last one year demanding shifting of the location of the proposed bridge over river Kusei on NH-215 at Belabahali. The residents had been at loggerheads with the administration many times delaying the construction in the process. The villagers had clashed with the police in July last year. Hundreds of villagers were arrested and sent to jail.