About a hundred women of Jamdhar gram panchayat staged road blockades recently on the Cuttack-Chandbali road and the Paradip-Daitary Expressway at Duhuria demanding immediate closure of the foreign liquor off-shop operating at Duhuria Bazaar.
Notably, the off-shop had remained closed for a few months now due to women’s protest. But the district administration recently gave permission for reopening of the shop. In protest, local women belonging to various SHGs began sitting on a dharna on Wednesday. As the administration didn’t listen to them, they staged road blockades on Friday.
The women withdrew their strike only after the Sub-Collector, on the advice of the district Collector, assured in writing that steps would be taken to close the liquor shop at the earliest. Then, the vehicular traffic came to normal on the two highways.