Post News Network
Angul, Feb 6: Panic gripped Kaltax Chhak area on National Highway-55 here Friday after hundreds of commuters experienced breathlessness, itching and tears trickled down their eyes under the impact of tear gas released during a training of constables. People ran for cover as a few of them fell down on the road coming in contact with the odour.
Reports said constables were undergoing training to control unruly mobs during riots at the nearby Police Training College (PTC).
The incident triggered resentment among the locals as the personnel imparting training couldn’t check the impact of the gas which resulted in affecting hundreds of people on the highway and thickly populated areas of the town.
As many as 608 constables of the Orissa Auxiliary Police Force are undergoing training in the college. Six grenades and a shell containing Chloroacetophenone gas were hurled on the college premises during the exercise. However, the vapour spread in the area after a few minutes and affected the commuters on the highway and the locals.
The shopkeepers on the square were first affected by the emanation as tears came out of their eyes while the elderly people complained of chest pain. Later, the commuters on the highway got affected. The chaos continued for about two hours. The impact of the gas was so strong that the traders chose to down their shutters.
Alerted, firefighters arrived on the scene but by then the impact was on the wane. Locals blamed the PTC authorities’ negligence for the turmoil created in the area. Though such exercises had been taken up in the past, the gas never came up to the highway, they said.
When contacted, CS Pradhan of PTC said the impact of such exercises doesn’t go beyond the college premises. However, he was clueless about the widespread impact of the gas. No one should panic as the gas has no adverse effect on the human body, Pradhan said.
