Bantala: While various methods of wooing voters have been tried and tested by political parties, a unique way of bribing voters in the ongoing panchayat elections has been witnessed in Bantala area of Angul district.
Earlier, cash, alcohol and clothes used to be distributed to voters but now the trend has changed, at least here. Some candidates in a bid to draw more votes hit upon the idea of distributing LPG cylinders to voters in exchange for their votes.
This came to light after more than 351 LPG cylinders of Indane Gas were seized from Chandanpur village under Nandapur panchayat Thursday. The supply department conducted a raid at the village and seized the gas cylinders from an isolated house.
According to the supply department, a political outfit had hired some local youths for a rally to attract voters. The youths had arranged a meeting at the isolated house regarding the upcoming panchayat polls.
In a bid to woo voters, they had planned to distribute free gas cylinders. As per plan, as many as 450 gas cylinders were kept in the house. Meanwhile, some locals came to know of the incident and became suspicious. They broke into the house and took away 100 gas cylinders and hid them in a nearby forest.
Later, they alerted the district supply department and Bantala police regarding the incident.
On being alerted, the assistant collector along with the district assistant supply officer Bibhuprasanna Acharya, Rabinarayan Prusty, Benudhar Panigrahy, supply inspector Arun Kumar Lenka, Srinibash Mishra, Sanjay Pradhan, Sangeeta Nayak, Swayamprabha Swain and Bantala ASI conducted a combined raid in the village.
As many as 351 gas cylinders were seized from the house during the raid. Meanwhile, 100 more gas cylinders were believed to be taken by the locals. Meanwhile, no one came forward to claim the cylinders yet. Later, the cylinders were given to a private gas agency.
Meanwhile, another 12 cylinders were seized from a farmland at Jakubu village under Jarpada police limits. Acting on a tip-off, supply officials seized the cylinders while nobody has come forward to claim these yet.
An investigation was launched into the incident. PNN
