Balasore: Tension flared here after a school bus ran over a Class VII student right in front of his mother Monday.
Locals staged a road blockade for about six hours and beat up the bus driver. Vehicular movement came to a standstill due to the protests.
According to sources, Bhawani Shankar Mohanty (12), son of Harihar Mohanty, was a student of Kendriya Vidyalaya.
His father, an Army man, is posted in Kashmir while the family resides in Balasore. Bhawani set off for school on a bicycle in the morning. Just 50 metre away from his home when a bus of DAV Public School ran over him, king him on the spot.
Irate locals assaulted the bus driver Prabhakar Mahana and vandalised the vehicle.
Town police rushed to the spot and rescued Mahana from the mob and admitted him to the district headquarters hospital. Soon, thousands of locals gathered at the spot and launched an agitation for six hours placing the minor’s body on the main road demanding construction of speed-breakers, compensation to the bereaved family and removal of encroachments near the road.
Sub-collector Ramchandra Palata, tehsildar Rashimrekha Pradhan, Industrial Estate police station IIC Paresh Chandra Rout, Sahadevkhunta IIC Pragnya Mohanty, Town IIC Dilip Sahu, Remunda IIC Parshuram Sahu and Sadar IIC Dayanidhi pacified the situation.
The agitation was called off after the administration assured the protesters of `20,000 compensation from the District Red Cross Fund and `1 lakh from DAV Public School management to the bereaved family. PNN
