The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Irate residents, traders block road for over three hours

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Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
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Irate residents, traders block road for over three hours

Staff reporter

Bad condition of the roads is the trigger

Ban on use of the road by heavy vehicles demanded
Officials persuade locals to call off the agitation

— Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Residents and traders of Prem Nagar having an argument with councillor J. Susamarani (left) on roads of their locality in Berhampur on Monday.

BERHAMPUR: A major road of the city passing through Prem Nagar was blocked for over three hours by local inhabitants and traders on Monday. They were demanding repair of the road and other basic amenities in their area.

At around 9.30 a.m., the women, children, traders and other people of the area came on to the road and blocked it by burning tyres at three places. According to president of the Prem Nagar merchants’ association, Prafulla Jagannath Padhi, their agitation was for four demands. Mr Padhi alleged that although it was a major locality of the city having 12 educational institutions, two film halls, a burial ground and a cremation ground the main road passing through it was in a dilapidated condition. Around two years ago it was repaired in a hurried manner as the motorcade of the then President, APJ Abdul Kalam, was to pass through the road during his visit to the city, he said. Now it had only become a collection of potholes, an agitating woman of the locality said.

In recent months heavy vehicles including 10-wheeled trucks carrying goods had started using this road to enter the city although it is a residential area.

The inhabitants wanted complete ban on these heavy vehicles on the road and reconstruction of the road as early as possible.

Stray cattle

They also wanted the municipality to check increasing number of stray cattle in the area.

They were opposed to the use of excavators to clean the sewerage system in the area. Mr Padhi said cleaning should be done manually as the heavy machine was destroying the walls of the drains while cleaning.

Officials of the municipality and Berhampur tehsildar, Sangram Panda, rushed to the spot to pacify the agitating crowd. The agitators handed over a memorandum addressed to the RDC, southern division, to the teshildar. Following promises from the officials, they withdrew their agitation at around 1 pm.

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