About 2,000 landless villagers under the banner of the Odisha Bhumihina Praja Samiti who had congregated at the Dhenkanal railway stationon Wednesday for going to Bhubaneswar for starting a mass dharna were lathicharged by police.
Samiti State president Debashisha Hota strongly condemned the undemocratic behaviour of the State Government and police and demanded fresh permission from DCP, Bhubaneswar, to organise rally at the lower PMG from Thursday besides providing safety and security to all the villagers and arrangement of their boarding and lodging.
Meanwhile, Dhenkanal Collector Roopa Roshan Sahoo assured of a meeting with Hota on Thursday for favourable actions on the Samiti's demands following which the Samiti decided to postpone the Bhubaneswar rally.
Notably, the Praja Samiti had planned to organise a huge rally from Master Canteen to lower PMG and then begin an indefinite dharna on Wednesday. But police foiled it by not allowing the members to board train to Bhubaneswar.
The Samiti had on November 17 given a charter of demands to the Chief Minister and pressed for their fulfilment within 15 days. The demands included giving land pattas to all poor landless families, evict people from Government land only if there are sufficient reasons, sacking BJD district youth president of Dhenkanal and former Chairman of Kamakhyanagar NAC Jashobanta Parida who grabbed many Government and private land, action against Kamakhyanagar Sub-Collector and the then Tehsildar Kalpataru Behera, SDPO Seikh Abdul Karim and IIC Pravat Kumar Tripathy for not taking action against Parida besides dismissal of Steel and Mines Minister and Kamakhyanagar MlA Prafulla Mallick for nexus with land grabbers. However, as the Government did not respond to the demands within the stipulated time, the Samiti had decided to launch stir in the State capital from December 14.