Post News Network
Sambalpur, Jan 11: Police Monday arrested around 300 women who blocked the Nelson Mandela-Laxmi Talkies Road outside the district collectorate here demanding immediate closure of a country liquor den at Kendughati.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s state secretary Suresh Pujari, who led the anti-liquor movement along with party colleagues Gobinda Agrawal and Damodar Kar, was also arrested.
Even though the police released the agitators in the evening, residents and various local outfits criticised the non-cooperation of the additional district magistrate (ADM), who did not even turn up to have a discussion with the protesters.
The women belonging to Kendughati, Pandupali, Harapriyabahal and Dedar Nuapali villages under Jayantpur gram panchayat alleged that hooch is being smuggled to these villages by some traders even as some unscrupulous employees of the police and excise departments are complicit in the nexus. The villagers also accused the superintendent of police (Excise) Biswanath Satpathy of turning a blind eye to the illegal business in the area.
The protesters said they are against the menace as several families were being affected due to their sole breadwinners becoming addicted to the country liquor and spending most of their hard-earned money on it. There have been several cases where some people have sold their ration cards to others just to make a quick buck with which to buy more liquor, the protesters alleged.
The women had apprised the Sambalpur district collector, superintendent of police and Excise SP of the matter December 5 last year. They had demanded that measures be taken to close the liquor den within 10 days and had threatened to intensify their agitation if measures were not taken within the stipulated period.
As the police and the administration failed to concede their demands with the specified time, the residents took to the streets, said BJP’s state women’s wing general secretary Sabita Nanda.
Sambalpur sub-collector Bimalendu Ray, sub-divisional police officer Gagarin Mohanty, Tehsildar Rajendra Minj, town police station inspector-in-charge Pradip Sahu Dhanupali IIC P Tapno and Ainthapali IIC Srimant Barik and other police officials reached the protest site and tried to pacify the protesters. However, the women were insistent that they will withdraw the agitation after ADM Manish Agrawal accepts their memorandum in the absence of the district collector.
The police administration had apprised the ADM of the demands of the people, but he refused to turn up at the protest venue. Police also tried to contact the district collector, but in vain. Even Excise SP Satpathy did not come to the venue, which led to tension as the protesters tried to barge into the collector’s office, when a scuffle occurred between the police and the agitators. Police later arrested over 300 women.
