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Row over boundary leads to tension

CUTTACK: When people of the Millennium City were set to soak themselves in puja celebrations, a boundary dispute taking ugly turn on Thursday night has shattered the splendid mood of many.

Traffic on NH-5 was disrupted for over five hours when members of two neighbouring puja committees staged road blockades at two separate places over the dispute.

Although, normalcy has been restored on Friday morning after several rounds of discussions throughout the night, tension is still prevailing between Khan Nagar and Madhupatna puja committees of the city.

The Mahanagar Peace committee along with district administration is holding talks with both the warring groups to broker peace on Friday.

According to reports tension began late on Thursday evening when some youths of Khan Nagar dismantled the decorations made by Madhupatna puja pandal right in front of the Madhupatna police station.

The youths claimed that the neighbouring puja committee has encroached upon their area. Soon the youths of Madhupatna retaliated ensuing a free for all with both the warring factions engaged in brickbats, police said.

Police had to resort to mild lathi charge to quell the warring factions.

But alleging police softness on the irate Khan Nagar youths, the puja committee members took to the streets and squatted on the road bringing a grinding halt to the traffic on the busy patch of the NH.

Both the striking factions however, relented and called off their road blockade around 3 am in the night with the assurance that the district administration would convene a peace committee meeting on Friday.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on either side of the city on the highway.

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