Bhubaneswar: Five activists of Puri district Congress, accused of hurling eggs at Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Sanjay Dasburma’s vehicle, surrendered before the Sea Beach police on Monday.
Confirming this, City DSP Pravat Kumar Routray said, “All five, against whom an FIR was lodged yesterday based on the report of the Pilot officer, have surrendered.”
“Since it is a bailable offence, we have released them on bail,” said Rourtay adding cases have been filed against the five under Sections 143, 341, 294, 286, 149 and 506 of IPC.
Report of the minister’s pilot officer said Swadheen Panda, Amarendra Paikray, Biswaranjan Samantaroy, Aditya Narayan Pani and Ashis Das had attacked Dasburma’s vehicle with eggs yesterday. Police sources said the accused could not be nabbed as they had fled the spot soon after the incident.
After being released on bail, Congress party worker Paikray said, “It is very shameful that a majority of the elected representatives of Puri Municipality hold ration cards. Besides, names of many BJD workers, mayors, Zilla Parsihad members, corporators and councillors have appeared in the ration card list. We are not going to sit idle and will hit the streets in the coming days as the ruling BJD is behind large scale irregularities while preparing the beneficiary list under NFSA.”
He said a mass demonstration will be staged in Puri against the ‘ration card scam.’
“We had approached chairpersons of all panchayats of the district to prepare the NFSA beneficiary list by including the names of the poor only. But now we are observing that there is no difference between haves and have-nots. We want to know how and on what basis the list is prepared?” asked another activist.
Paikray stated that ration cards have also been issued in the name of Puri Muncipal Councillor, Zilla Parishad vice chairperson and Kabita Patra, wife of Zilla Parishad chairperson Dibakar Patra.