Tension prevailed in the Kuarmunda dairy farm area under the Biramitrapur police station here as a private company started building a compound wall to set up a sponge iron plant on a land previously earmarked for establishment of a medical college and hospital.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had in 2014 laid foundation stone for establishment of a medical college and hospital.
Surprisingly on Saturday night, a private organisation ‘Mahaveer Company’ engaged some people to construct the compound wall on the said land. Knowing this, local people rushed the spot and vehemently stopped the construction work.
The people seized the construction materials, including trucks, and handed over the same to the Kuarmunda out-post. The locals said that the land was occupied from tribals for establishment of a dairy farm. But later in 2014, it was decided to set up a medical college in 20 acres of land and, subsequently, the CM had laid the foundation-stone.
“Instead of establishing a medical college, the Idco has conspired to allot the same land to a private company for a sponge iron plant which is no way acceptable by us,” said locals.
They demanded that the proposed medical college established over the land soon or return the same to the tribal.