News from Jagatsinghpur

A Sarpanch candidate and seven of his supporters in Sailo Panchayat under Kujang Block in Jagatsinghpur district were arrested on Monday for allegedly attacking the vehicle of senior politician and former Odisha Minister Damodar Rout.

Dhinkia witnessed violent clash between police and locals over a proposed project of the JSW in the area last month.

The unit allegedly involved in the manufacturing of fake mosquito repellents was unearthed at Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district on Friday night.

This new development has provided the Opposition parties a peg to hang their attack on the BJD government for being in a tearing hurry to facilitate the JSW to set up its project. 

With this, the cumulative Covid-19 positive tally in the State has surged to 12,59,405 while a total of 12,15,380 people have recovered from the infection so far.

A similar incident has been reported today from Bhubaneswar where a youth ended his life leaving behind a suicide note in which he has held his girlfriend responsible for his death.

The fresh fatalities pushed the virus death toll in the State to 8612. 

An RTI activist, Manas Ranjan Kar also accused the State government of creating panic among the people by using police force and destroying their betel vine plantations. 

It is being alleged that the police personnel have demolished the betel vines of one Gautam Das, a leader of the anti-steel plant movement in the village without his consent.

Jagatsinghpur district administration and the Police resumed eviction work at several betel vines in the area on Monday after a brief halt of two days that followed the brutal Police lathi charge on protesting villagers at Dhinkia last week.

Tension is running high in the village following the arrest of some villagers who had confronted the police during the eviction of betel vine plantations

The villagers said the demolition drive was undertaken without consultations and non-fulfilment of their demands. They alleged that demolition was arbitrary and part of the administration’s ploy to expedite land acquisition for the project.

With this, the Covid-19 positive tally in the State has surged to 10,91,547 while a total of 10,47,783 people have recovered from the virus infection. The active cases have gone up to 35,242.

With the fresh cases, the total number of Omicron infection has reached 103 in the State.

The villagers are anticipating forced entry from all three sides of the village. To prevent such a situation, they have stepped up vigil around the stop-gates 24x7.