Tension erupted at Koro panchayat under Nikirai police station following a group clash erupted on Wednesday morning between the Dalits of Gaiduan Jenasahi village and the upper caste villagers of Tanara village over cutting paddy crop on the agriculture fields of Tanara-based Radha Mohan mutt.
As a result, the Dalits and the upper caste people went on assaulting each other. 20 persons were injured, including three critically, informed Pattamundai SDPO Kedarnath Sahu.
According to Sahu, since last 200 years the Dalit people of Gaiduan Jenasahi villagers used to beat drums at the Tanara-based RadhaMohan mutt and eke out their living by farming on the agriculture field of the mutt provided to them by the mutt authority in lieu of their service.
But, since last more than one decade, the Dalit families failed to render their service to the mutt, but they have been farming the mutt land. As a result, the Trustee of the Mutt, Sukant Swain, filed a petition before the Endowment Commissioner to take steps for bringing the mutt land back from the possession of the Dalits. But this year the Dalits raised paddy crops on the mutt land. But, the Endowment Commissioner court in its recent order on last July 14 directed the then Kendrapada tehsildar to take steps to make encroachment free of the mutt land from the Dalits and hand over the land to the trustee.
The Tehsildar of Kendrapada and the RI of the locality also restricted the Dalits from crop cutting. On Wednesday, some Dalits were cutting crop defying the order, when the trustee of the mutt sent some persons to restrict them. Here, the group clash erupted. The injured persons were later rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital for treatment.
SDPO of Pattamundai Kedarnath Sahu, IIC of Nikirai police station Sukadev Das and a police team rushed to the spot in order to take stock of the situation and pacify the people.
On Wednesday evening two FIRs were lodged from both the opponent parties at the Nikirai police station. Forces have been deployed to maintain law and order in the area.