Cuttack: Normal life was affected across Cuttack today due to a dawn-to-dusk bandh called by Cuttack Banchao Andolan committee and Aam Aadmi Party with 20 other organisations over the exclusion of the Millennium City from the coveted ‘Smart City’ list.
Communication services at prominent places such as Badambadi, Madhupatana chhak and Link road among others were hit as protesting members were seen blocking roads and holding picketing leaving a large number of passengers stranded.
According to reports, school children, college students, office goers and hundreds of common people were seen standing on the roads as they are left with no options.
The committee has decided to include schools, colleges and various commercial establishments in the bandh in order to leave a larger impact.
Earlier, lawyers in the city had boycotted court proceedings on the issue and representatives of the High Court Bar Association and six other associations on Thursday met State chief secretary G C Pati at the State secretariat to press their demands for inclusion of Cuttack in the Smart City scheme.
Bhubaneswar and Rourkela with 70 percent and 61.8 percent respectively placed at first and second for the Smart City project on the guidelines of the Union government leaving Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur each at 60 percent.