Suryakant Jena

Bolangir: As protests and condemnation continue to intensify against Patnagarh BJD MLA Saroj Meher who stoked a statewide outcry by forcing a junior engineer to do sit ups in the public a few days ago, troubles seem to be mounting on the legislator.

In the latest development, Bolangir District Tribal Welfare Association has called for 'Bhubaneswar Chala' on June 26. The tribal outfit has threatened to gherao the State Assembly by staging a mass gathering with tribal residents from all the 30 districts of Odisha.

Soon after gheraoing the Bolangir Collectorate on June 12, the tribals had issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the district administration to arrest the legislator.

However, due to inaction by the police and the district administration, the tribal protesters have decided to hold protests and shut down all the block offices in the district.

“From tomorrow onwards we will shutdown all the block offices. Tribal people of all the districts will congregate in Bhubaneswar on June 26 to stage a mass protest too," informed Braja Kishore Singh Bhoi, president of Bolangir Tribal Welfare Association.

While Bolangir Police have so far stayed mum over the issue, senior Congress leader and Bolangir MLA Narasingha Mishra has condemned the incident and said that law will take its own course.

“Those who have been accused of low quality construction works are culprits and they should be brought to book, but as far as I know, a legislator has no right to take action against a government official. Since Patnagarh MLA has taken law into his own hands, action should be taken against him,” said Mishra.

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