Social Activist Muktikanta Biswal Meets Senior Congress Leaders

Bhubaneswar: After an appointment with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, social activist Muktikanta Biswal met Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Narasingha Mishra and Odisha in-charge Jitendra Singh here on Sunday.

In the meeting with the senior congress leaders, he raised his demands for a second bridge over the Brahmani river and upgrading IGH to a super specialty facility.

The LoP promised Muktikanta to raise the issue in the next Assembly session.

Having failed in his ‘Delhi Chalo’ mission, the social activist on Saturday met the Chief Minister to press for his demands. “The Chief Minister promised that he would pursue my demands and discuss them with Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said after the meeting.

Notably, he had started the ‘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.