Dhenkanal, Feb 29: Normal life in Rasola area of Odisha’s Dhenkanal district was thrown out of gear after Rasola Bikas Parishad called for a 12-hour bandh demanding Notified Area Council (NAC) status to the region.
Despite having a population of more than 10,000 people, and fulfilling all the criteria to get NAC status, Rasola Panchayat is yet to get the tag, alleged the protesters.
Owing to the dawn-to-dusk bandh, private offices, banks, educational institutions, business establishments and markets remained closed. The agitators also staged a blockade on Puruna Cuttack-Sambalpur Road affecting vehicular movement.
The agitators, who had also submitted a memorandum to the sub-collector addressing to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, threatened to intensify the protest if the government fails to fulfill their demand within three days.
It is worth mentioning that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced creation of 34 Notified Area Councils (NAC) in 20 districts and upgradation of five NACs into municipalities in four districts of the state on Monday.
Following this, protests erupted at several left-out places across the state.
As per reports, several local outfits observed bandh in Kalahandi’s M Rampur, Subranapur’s Subalaya and Binika, Bolangir’s Bongomunda, Sambalpur’s Bamra, Boudh’s Loisingha and Balasore’s Baliapal protesting against the state government’s failure to grant NAC status to the aforementioned regions.
Several outfits observed bandh protesting against the state government’s failure to accord NAC status to M Rampur in Kalahandi, Subalaya and Binika in Subranapur, Bongomunda in Bolangir, Bamra in Sambalpur and Baliapal in Balasore district.
A 12-hour bandh was also observed in Purunakatak area which also missed the NAC tag.
