Post News Network
Nayagarh, Jan 3: At least 10 persons were injured, two of them critically, after a group clash broke out between residents of Padmabati and Talamarada villages under Fategad police station in the district Sunday over lifting of sand from the Mahanadi riverbed.
Tension gripped the villages and police are on alert to maintain law and order.
There have been occasional disputes between the two villages over lifting of sand. Earlier also, people of these villages fought with each other over the issue. In one incident, Fategarh police station officer-in-charge Sudhakar Sahu and Tehsildar Binod Kumar Swain intervened in the matter and brought a temporary solution to the conflict.
However, differences between the two villages over the issue continued and it culminated Sunday when residents of both the villages faced each other with lathis, bombs and other weapons.
The rival groups hurled bombs at each other in front of Padmabati panchayat office. They also attacked each other with lathis and pelted stones at each other on a road near Chhelia village.
The injured persons includes Santosh Mohapatra (25), Pradyumna Sahu (17) and Prasanna Sahu (15) of Padmabati village and Anjan Pradhan (45) and Dinabandhu Muduli (40) of Talamarada village.
They were admitted to a hospital at Bhapur and later shifted to hospitals at Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Residents of the two villages had approached the Bhapur tehsildar several times in the past to demarcate the sand ghat. Both the villages have been at loggerheads over taking the sand ghat on lease. The Tehsildar had assured them of giving the ghat on lease and that he would start the process soon.
Even though the leasing process has not started yet, the villagers were engaged in lifting the sand in tractors illegally. A number of tractors were seized while they were found illegally transporting sand from the riverbed. In several incidents, the drivers had to cough up a heavy sum as fine.