Post News Network
Cuttack, Dec 29: Slum dwellers of Taanla Sahi in Tulasipur Monday offered stiff resistance to the eviction drive launched by the civic authorities forcing the police to resort to lathicharge in which two persons were injured.
Tension gripped the area after the slum-dwellers staged a dharna protesting their eviction which later turned ugly after the protestors began pelting stones at the police.
The angry protestors also torched some of the houses in the slum after which the fire tenders were pressed into service.
According to sources, 10 persons were arrested by the police for protesting and attacking the police.
‘‘While the eviction drive launched by Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) was in progress, some protesters pelted stones at the police. We have taken some people on preventive custody. At least ten policemen sustained minor injuries during the scuffle with the slum-dwellers. The situation is now under control,’’ informed Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora.
“The 264 families residing here will be provided houses under Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme. We had discussed it with them and they had agreed to vacate their houses after the festival season was over,’’ said CMC commissioner
Gyana Das.
Ten slum-dwellers had moved the Orissa High Court in this connection. The High court has allowed the petitioners seven days’ time and asked them to shift at their own cost, Das added.
The CMC, prior to the eviction drive, had served notices on the slum-dwellers and gave wide publicity to the drive through the public address system.
The police arrived in the slum early morning and told the local inhabitants to vacate. Before they could vacate the houses, their houses were bull-dozed, the protesters told the media. ‘‘We are left under the open sky at the peak of winter. They made no rehabilitation for us. Where shall we go with our children and sick parents at this time,” asked some residents.
