A five-day mass protest was launched on November 24 by the Lakhanpur Citizen Council demanding sub division status to the Lakhanpur block by creation of three blocks under its ambit.
According to the agitators, the Lakhanpur block was formed in 1958 and is considered to be the second largest block of the State with 33 panchayats. It is spread over 368 square km in the vicinity of the Hirakud Reservoir.
The distance of the block from the east to west is around 113 km and 42 km from north to south.As per 2011 Census, the population of the block was around 1, 42,453 and it might have crossed 2 lakh by now. 47.2 per cent of the total population of the block is scheduled tribe and 14.7 per cent, scheduled caste.
The villagers under the block have lost their fertile land for the Hirakud Dam project built during 1955-56 and thereafter to the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, the Banharpalli IB Thermal Power and other big and small industries for the overall development of the country.
The residents have to reach Lakhanpur Tehsil and other offices running in the block areas crossing over 50 km and are often harassed by not getting the required services many a time.
Besides, they are also being deprived of benefits of different Government schemes in the field of education, health, transport, energy, drinking water and agriculture, etc.
The agitators told that they had ventilated their grievances before the district administration several times lamenting over the lack of proper attention to Lakhanpur block and seeking its development but in vain. Sources revealed that during 1993,1998 and 2020, it was decided unilaterally in panchayat samiti meetings to give subdivision status to Lakhanpur with its division into three blocks and a memorandum was submitted to the Chief Minister and the local peoples’ representatives.
As there was no positive result, the Lakhanpur Citizen Council finally launched the mass dharna. Former MLA Makardhwaj Pradhan, Biranchi Sahoo, Gopinath Majhi, Raghunandan Panda, Goutam Pradhan besides scores of local residents were present at the dharana.