Police Lathicharge Agitating Panchayat Members In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: Nearly a dozen of agitating panchayat samiti members were injured in lathicharge by police at Mahatma Gandhi Marg here on Monday.

The incident took place around noon when the protestors under the aegis of Panchayat Samiti Sabhya Association took out a rally from Master Canteen Square and attempted to barge towards Odisha Assembly. Following which, the cops resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse the protestors and foil their attempt to gherao the assembly.

“The police, instead of listening to us, applied force on us. The state government should immediately fulfil our 10-point charter of demands including benefits at par with sarpanches. The agitation will be intensified in the days to come, if the government fails to sort out our issues at the earliest, a member of the association said.

A number of agitators were detained by police.