Police on Wednesday detained five Congress workers for showing black flags to Higher Education Minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy during his visit to Gajapati district.
Congress members showed black flags at Padmapur when the Minister was on its way to inaugurate a newly constructed 100-bed boys’ hostel here.
“Though opening of the hostel is a Governemnt programme, yet it has been converted into a BJD programme. People’s representatives of other parties have not been invited,” alleged Congress workers.
Police took Youth Congress district president Sangram Sahoo, Goutam Panda, Anil Kumar Bebarta, Suryanarayan Patra and Anil Mohanty to detention to avoid any untoward incident, said Paralakhemundi police station IIC Babuli Nayak.
However, party’s Paralakhemundi town president Basant Panda, district vice-president Jamini Rao and treasurer Garudadhwaja Choudhury alleged that police beat up congress workers
mercilessly.
During first day of his two-day visit, the Minister inaugurated as many as eight projects, including seven student hostels and a rural water supply project, in the district.