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Controversy over Soren’s demand deepens

Special Correspondent

Activists of BJD, BJP stage protest across the State

BJD, BJP call for Mayurbhanj bandh today
Leaders say they will not allow land to be merged with Jharkhand

Inter-State dispute: Members of the BJD demonstrating in front of the Governor’s House in protest against the JMM proposal to divide Orissa, in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

BHUBANESWAR: Opposition to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren’s demand for merger of three districts of Orissa with greater Jharkhand became widespread on Tuesday with workers of the ruling Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party staging protests at several places across the State.

A large number of workers of the BJD staged a dharna outside Raj Bhavan in the Capital and raised slogans against the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre and the JMM leader.

A group of women workers of the party swept the road with brooms in their hands to mark their opposition to the JMM leader’s demand.

N-deal

As one of the conditions for extending support to the UPA government during the trust vote in Parliament over the controversial nuclear deal issue, Mr. Soren had reportedly demanded that the tribal-dominated districts of Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sundargarh should be merged with Jharkhand for the creation of Greater Jharkhand.

Similar protest meetings and rallies were organised by the two parties in Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh and Keonjhar districts. Both the BJD and the BJP have also given a call for bandh in Mayurbhanj district on Wednesday to register their protest against Mr. Soren’s demands. The leaders of both the parties have said that they would not allow even an inch of land of Orissa to be merged with Jharkhand.

Reacting to Mr. Soren’s demand on Monday, Chief Minister and the BJD president Naveen Patnaik had said that the UPA government would prove to be anti-Orissa if it accepted the demand raised by the JMM leader.

Mr. Patnaik had also reiterated Orissa’s old demand for merger of Sareikala and Kharsuan, areas having a vast majority of Oriya-speaking people in Jharkhand, with the State.

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