Post News Network
Pottangi, Dec 24: Tension erupted Wednesday near Kunduli village under the local police limits in Koraput district as police resorted to baton charge to disperse the crowd at the site after a diesel tanker turned turtle. Locals were collecting oil from the toppled tanker.
Reports said that the tanker from Visakhapatnam was on its way to a filling station at Kotpad. The loaded tanker turned turtle on NH-26 as the driver lost control over the vehicle while giving way to another vehicle. The tanker was carrying 4,500 litres of petrol and 13,500 litres of diesel. Locals were seen collecting the oil in buckets and cans. Alerted, Pottangi IIC Birbal Badi, SI Mahaprasad Nayak, ASI Manoj Pradhan and other officials reached the spot and asked people to abstain from their activities. The officials resorted to mild baton charge as locals did not follow the order. This triggered outrage among the locals.
Sources said, police, after preventing people from collecting the fuel, filled up their own car with the dripping oil and later brought a jeep-load of cans to collect diesel.
Koraput SP Charan Singh Mina stopped over at the site on his way to Pottangi police station and enquired into the matter with officials. The SP reportedly expressed his dissatisfaction over the handling of the whole issue and went back to Koraput. A case has been registered at the police station over the accident.
