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Umerkote: A day after the arrest of former Congress MP Pradip Majhi and 16 others for ransacking the Raighara ranger officer and beating up forest and police staff, the Nabarangpur district unit of Congress today decided to observe bandh on Tuesday in protest.
Bhujabala Majhi, MLA, Dabugaon, said, “We demand the immediate release of the Congress activists, who have been arrested illegally. Otherwise the district bandh will be observed.”
Meanwhile, Majhi, along with seven other arrested Congress activists, have started a hunger strike in the jail.
Majhi told media persons, “They cannot suppress our voice by midnight arrest and sending us to jail. We stick to our legitimate demand of allotting forest land patta to tribals and identify the persons who have already got the land rights.”
Condemning the arrest of Majhi, Narasingha Mishra, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said, “Majhi has done nothing wrong by raising such issues.”
On the other hand, Balabhadra Majhi, BJD MP, Nabarangpur, said. “The number people left to be identified is pretty small. The situation has not turned so bad that they had to ransack the range office and beat up officials. Are such acts of hooliganism legal? The arrest has been made as per law and no pressure was put on the administration.”
Notably, Majhi and some Congress activists were arrested yesterday for allegedly ransacking the Raighara range office. The Congress activists had reportedly forcibly entered the range office and caused heavy damage to it before beating up Ranger Kumar Khara and Raighara ASI Bulu Patnaik.
