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People prefer to stay indoors

G.UDAYGIRI (KANDHAMAL DIST): People preferred to remain indoor in the communally-tense Kandhamal district on Wednesday. The administration clamped Section 144 as a precautionary measure. For some strange reason, landlines and cellphones fell silent.

While curfew was imposed at Baliguda following communal violence, a village named K. Nuagaon near it presented a different picture.

Located at a distance of just 15 km from Baliguda, where incidents of ransacking and burning of places of worship were reported, K. Nuagaon showed the way to maintaining harmony and peace. The inhabitants guarded the village and its six churches from becoming targets of miscreants. “We will not allow any outsider into the village for the next few days,” said Hitesh Kumar Nayak of the village. A few policemen of the local outpost were, however, there for the sake of it.

Elsewhere, the roads wore a deserted look. Even daily wagers and forest produce collectors preferred to remain indoor. People got panic after most of the landlines and cellphones become defunct due to some unknown reason in the afternoon. Apart from members of the Kui Samaj, no one was ready to speak to outsiders.

Neither the police nor the personnel of the Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) dared to clear the road blockade till the 36-hour bandh called by the samaj ended in the evening.

K.C. Pradhan, a tribal leader, who along with armed tribals, was guarding the road blockade at Kalinga Ghat, said the ODRAF personnel who had come to clear the blockade went back twice in a bid to avoid a flare-up. Since afternoon, the administration sealed off all entry points of Kandhamal district as a precautionary measure.

The tribals cut down over 120 trees to block the 20-km stretch of NH 217 between Ganjam district border and G. Udaygiri in Kandhamal district. Most of the roads were blocked by the agitators.

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