Post News Network
Kendrapara/ Rajkanika, March 14: A week after the police firing on unarmed people protesting against a liquor shop at Namatara village under Rajkanika block in Kendrapara district, the district collector Saturday visited the village and met the affected families.
Nine persons rendered critical in the incident are now undergoing treatment in SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
Collector Pramod Kumar Das, while interacting with the family members, tried to assuage their feelings triggered following the
incident. Das’ announcement to include the victims’ families under Indira Awas Yojana housing scheme brought little cheer among the family members as they doubted its implementation.
A team of lawyers comprising Prabhat Adhikari, Saroj Raj Singh, Bidhubhusan Mohapatra, Nehru Sahu, Akhshya Kumar Mallick, Saroj Dixit, Nrusingha Chandra Dixit, also visited the site and took stock of the situation.
The team sought judicial inquiry to unravel the truth behind the incident. Meanwhile, lawyer-cum-human rights activists Radhakanta Tripathy filed petition with the National Human Rights Commission over the police firing and lathicharge on unarmed women on International Women’s Day.
The simmering discontentment among the villagers following the incident was found written large on their face. A woman Bandana Jena said they do not have any qualms on laying down their lives against the liquor shop which has broken homes and has shattered the peace in their families.
The villagers despite living in hardship expressed their resolve to continue with their fight till the liquor shop is shifted. They alleged how differently-abled persons and even octogenarian persons of both Jena Sahi and Sahu Sahi were not spared during the police assault on them. Shivani Jena, a woman, said they have not committed any wrong in razing the liquor shop which had shattered their families’ peace.
Moreover, Rajkanika-Kandiahaat road, the site of the unrest, was found strewn with broken liquor bottles on road and on the burnt police jeep.
