Miscreants on Tuesday late night vandalised and looted a statue of Mahatma Gandhi that was installed in front of a foreign liquor shop on Paradip-Daitary Expressway on Tuesday by the Nisa Nibarana Samiti of Jamadhar panchayat and the Duhuria Bazar Committee.
The intellectual masses condemned the act saying it is purely unfortunate that the statue within 24 hours of its installation was vandalized and looted.
The Duhuria Bazar Committee and the Nisa Nibarana Samiti of Jamdhar gram panchayat later complained before the district Collector and the IIC of Kendrapada Sadar police station. Acting on the information, a police team led by IIC Padarbinda Tripathy rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. The Nisa Nibarana Samiti alleged that one liquor trader of the locality and his supporters were involved in the act.
Acting on the FIR, the police registered a case and were conducting an inquiry. Nobody had been arrested, stated IIC Tripathy.
Meanwhile, demanding the arrest of the accused and also re-installation of a Gandhi statue on the spot, the locals staged an agitation near the dismantled pedestal.
It may be noted that the locals had demanded closure of two licenced liquor shops at Duhuria Chowk -the entrance road to Kendrapada and had held demonstration and dharana in the past. But, the district administration had not paid heed to their demand. later, the locals with the help of Duhuria Bazar Committee on Tuesday expressed their protest in a unique way by installing two statues of Gandhi in front of the two liquor shops. The panchayat people and bazaar committee spent money from their own pockets for the statue construction. On Tuesday, the statues were unveiled by Kendrapada Panchayat Samiti chairperson Nibedita Samal and Gandhian leader Kumar Chandra Mishra.