BHUBANESWAR: The tribals of Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district of the Orissa lifted their road blockade agitation in the wee hours of Friday much to the relief of the Naveen Patnaik Government.

Secretary of the Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch said that the blockade had been lifted showing respect to the High Court order, but the movement against displacement by the proposed steel plant project of Tata Steel will continue in the area.

As per their announcement made on Thursday evening, the office-bearers of the Janmanch and a large number of men and women from the nearby villages gathered at the blockade site near Ambagadia village around midnight and removed the obstruction from the Daitari-Paradip highway around 2 a.m.

The tribals, who lifted the blockade after performing a puja ceremony, vowed to continue their agitation against displacement by industries in their locality. High Court, which had earlier directed the State Government to remove the road blockade, had fixed Friday as the deadline for implementing its orders.

When the case came up before the Court at Cuttack, counsel for the State Government submitted that the blockade had been lifted.

In Bhubaneswar, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed satisfaction over the lifting of the road blockade by the tribals of Kalinga Nagar.

"I am glad," he said.

The Janmanch, however, has clarified that it would strongly oppose all activities of Tata Steel in their area till the various demands of the Janmanch were fulfilled by the State Government. "We will not give our land and houses for any industry in the area," Mr. Jarika said.

Industrial security force

Meanwhile, the Finance Department of the State Government gave its nod to a proposal mooted by the Home Department to raise new force to be named Industrial Security Force. Initially, the force will have around 500 personnel. Funds are being allocated to facilitate creation of the new force which will be deployed in various industrial hubs of the State to maintain law and order, a senior government official said after a high level meeting held on Friday. People's opposition to setting up of new industries at various places and frequent law and order problems in different industrial hubs in the recent months had made the authorities to go in for creating the new force, sources said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail