Members of the Hanuman Jayanti Samannway Samity (HJSS) on Tuesday sat in a dharna in front of the office of the RDC here protesting against the arrested of its activists before the Hanuman Jayanti procession.
Though there was no chance of breach of peace in the city by the Samity members, the police and district administration arbitrarily arrested the members and the participants to foil the celebration held once in a year on the eve of Hanuman Jayanti,” said Pradeep Bahidar, a senior member of the Samity.
“We protest the arrest of 24 members of the Samannway Samity for no reason. The action of police is totally politically-motivated and designed in accordance with the direction of the ruling party,” said Girish Patel, a former Chairman of the Sambalpur Municipality and a member of the Samity.
“We are totally disciplined and law abiding. We don’t want any confrontation with any community or even the administration. Still then, police are vindictive on us for no valid cause,” alleged Patel further.
While police are silent on core issues like influx of Bangladeshi citizens all over the State including Sambalpur, illegal and unlawful activities by these people, we fail to understand why the police are hard on a disciplined organisation with which eminent citizens of the city are involved, asked Satyanarayan Panda, a senior advocate and a Samity office-bearer. “It is a highly regretful matter that we don’t have the right to organise a procession in our own land although we assured police and the district administration much before that there would be no breach of peace anywhere in the city during the procession,” Panda said further.
All other activists of the Samity also spoke on the similar line to protest the police action on the Hanuman Jayanti day in stopping procession in the midway without any rhyme and reason.