Pradeep Majhi among 15 Cong men held for attacking forest, police staff

Nabarangpur: Fifteen Congress activists, including former Congress MP Pradeep Majhi, were arrested today and forwarded to a court for allegedly ransacking the Raighara range office and beating up forest and police personnel.

The Congress activists forcibly entered the range office and caused heavy damage to it before beating up Ranger Kumar Khara and Raighara ASI Bulu Patnaik.

They were staging a demonstration demanding immediate allotment of forest land patta to tribals and conduct of a fresh survey to identify eligible poor beneficiaries of ration cards.

Majhi said, “We are ready to go to jail 100 times. We want forest land patta for tribals and a fresh ration card survey to include poor eligible families.”

Meanwhile, Khara, the injured Ranger said, “Irate people beat and manhandled us. They tore our shirts and damaged the office.”

Narendra Majhi, IIC, Raighara, said, “On charges of attacking Raighara ranger office, we have arrested 15 people including Pradeep Majhi.”