Section 144 of CrPC was clamped in the Kanpur irrigation project site at Basudevpur under Joda block of Keonjhar district on Tuesday.
The construction of the ongoing project over river Baitarani, said to be the second largest in the State, is facing stiff resistance as the affected people are on strike since March 17 in demand of fulfilment of their 17-point charter of demands.
Keonjhar Collector Dr N Tirumalla Naik had held meeting with the core committee members of the affected people at Champua Sub-Collector office on March 23 in the presence of concerned Government officials and agreed to almost all the demands of the people except with regard to the demand to revise the payment of the compensation and RR assistance to the displaced persons.
He told that the matter would be decided in a meeting on April 18 and requested agitators to postpone the agitation till that time and allow the construction work to move on.
But the meeting could not be successful as some of the core committee members remained adamant and demanded that the Collector agreed to their demand first. Water Resource Secretary Pradip Kumar Jena visited the project site and had a meeting with the concerned officials on April 7.
Sources close to DSP (Joda) SK Mohapatra said that the area has been brought under 144 in order to foil any destructive activities to damage the project and the imposition will be in force for 30 days.
However, the villagers are in no mood to withdraw their agitation and are determined to continue the same till their demands are fulfilled.