A dawn-to-dusk bandh called by the Congress on Thursday over the vandalisation of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Sambalpur University campus paralysed life at Burla.
While vehicular traffic came to a standstill, most shops, Government offices and banks remained closed.
Security measures were beefed up to avoid any untoward incident. Dozens of Congress workers were taken into preventive custody.
The agitators, holding placards and shouting slogans, demanded stringent action against the miscreants who vandalised the statue.
“A statue of the Father of the Nation that was inaugurated by BJD MlA Rohit Pujari as recently as April 4 couldn’t have come down on its own. We demand an inquiry and stringent action against the culprits,” said an agitator.
Even though the Sambalpur SP tried to clarify that the statue could have fallen down because of high winds, neither the agitators nor the university authorities were ready to accept the version. Police have started a probe into the incident after Sambalpur University Vice-Chancellor Chitta Ranjan Tripathy lodged a complaint about the vandalisation of the statue.