The district administration on Wednesday organised a peace committee meeting in order to end the ongoing communal tension at Haladia village in Kusiapala gram panchayat under Kendrapada Sadar police station limits.
The dispute between the Hindus and the Muslims erupted on March 28 evening when the former were taking out a Dola palanquin in a well decorated procession by beating brass band and bursting fire crackers near a mosque in a Muslim settlement. According to official sources, a peace committee meeting was organised at Derabish block office led by Kendrapada Sub Collector Pratap Kumar Mishra. SDPO Nrusigha Charan Swain, Derabish BDO Rudra Narayan Mohanty, Derabish tehsildar Sumitra Patnaik, Kendrapada Sadar police station IIC Tapas Pradhan, Kusiapala gram panchayat sarpanch Adhikari Golakh Behari Das and the representatives of both the communities were present.
According to Sub-Collector Mishra, the representatives of both the communities urged the district administration to allow their local sarpanch for settling the matter amicably by organising a meeting at Kusiapala Panchayat office after inviting five representatives from both the communities.
The district administration gave its nod and asked the sarpanch of Kusiapala GP to organise a meeting next Friday to settle the issue permanently with the cooperation of both the communities. When contacted, SDPO Swain stated that police were deployed at Haladia village to avert any possible flare-up. However, he said no law and order situation has arisen in last six days in the village.