Residents of Jaleswar in Baleswar district under the banner of the Rajpur Anchalik Unnayan Committee staged a demonstration in front of the local tehsil office on Thursday demanding immediate measures control floods in Subarnarekha river and save them from devastation. The agitators led by former Rajpur Sarpanch Dillip Parida also demanded immediate steps to stop sand lifting from the river bed and to construct spurs and stone patching.
They alleged that while the tehsil has given a temporary lease to a person permitting him to lift only 50 trucks of sand, yet the person has lifted thousands of truck-load sand. They said the embankment has weakened due to movement of trucks frequently. They lamented that most of Rajpur GP villages, mainly Mohammad Nagar, suffered a lot due to floods in 2008 and 2009 caused by weak embankment.
The agitators demanded that CrPc 144 be clamped soon at the sand lifting areas so that illegal shifting would be stopped. later, they submitted a memorandum to Tehsildar Dr Rajanikanta Biswal and Executive Engineer of Irrigation SK Parida in this regard.