Rourkela: Muktikanta Biswal after being denied permission by the Delhi police for a hunger strike went ahead his way and sat on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar at 11.30 am Sunday. Police raided the protest site and arrested him at 6.45 pm.
The police then conducted a health check-up of Muktikanta and left him at Ramlila Maidan.
Muktikanta said he apprehends that the Delhi police might arrest him again to foil his plan for a hunger strike. He, however, vowed not to backtrack from his move and continue with his efforts to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Back home, Gopal Jena, president of Rourkela Yuva Jagruti Manch, sat on a hunger strike in support of Muktikanta in front of the statue of former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik at Sector-2 here.
Meanwhile, the CPI (M)’s youth wing Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) threw its weight behind Muktikanta’s mission.
The DYFI, while announcing its support for Muktikanta, lambasted Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram for not helping Muktikanta in meeting the Prime Minister.
DYFI would give a befitting reply to Oram at an appropriate time for ridiculing Muktikanta’s mission and labelling him as a pawn of a particular political party, DYFI president Raj Kishore Pradhan said.
Muktikanta, a young man of Khariabahal slum in Sector-2 of Steel City, reached New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister after undertaking a ‘padayatra’ of 1,550 km. The PM during his visit to the state in 2015 had promised to upgrade the Ispat General Hospital (IGH), the lifeline of the people of Rourkela, into a medical college and a super specialty hospital and to construct the second Brahmani Bridge at Panposh.
Reacting to Oram’s statement, DYFI vice-president Biswajit Majhi said the minister has not only disappointed Muktikanta but the youth of this country.
In such a situation, Muktikanta remaining firm on his step is praiseworthy, DYFI secretary Lal Bahadur Mohanta said. The blessings of the Steel City residents will help him overcome all odds and achieve his goal, Mohanta said.
Muktikanta has vowed not to return home until his goal is achieved. The Prime Minister’s Office is yet to take a call on his visit despite his ‘padayatra’ generating a lot of buzz in the country.
PNN
