Social Activist Muktikanta Biswal Meets CM Over His Demands

Bhubaneswar: Having failed in his ‘Delhi Chalo’ mission, social activist Muktikanta Biswal on Saturday met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over his demands for a second bridge over the Brahmani river and upgrading IGH to a super specialty facility.

He met the Chief Minister at Naveen Nivas and was accompanied by BJD’s Raghunathpali MLA Subrat Tarai.

“The Chief Minister promised that he would pursue my demands and discuss them with Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Muktikanta said after the meeting.

Notably, he had started his padayatra to meet the Chief Minister from Rourkela on July 30.

Earlier, he had walked all the way to Delhi from Rourkela to remind the PM of these promises which he had made during his maiden visit to the Steel City.

The 30-year-old social activist started the journey to Delhi by foot on April 16. He managed to cover about 1,350 km on foot before fainting on the highway. Following which, he was admitted to a hospital in Agra on June 27. After recovering, he resumed the journey.

On reaching Delhi, Muktikanta first met Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, seeking his help to meet the PM. The Union Minister, however, dissuaded him saying that there was no need for him to meet the PM as the construction of the second bridge had already started and work for super specialty in the burns and plastic surgery department of IGH initiated.

Meanwhile, Muktikanta was taken into custody by Delhi Police while sitting on a hunger strike near Jantar Mantar.

Having failed to get an audience with Modi, he finally returned to Rourkela on July 8.