Anti-liquor protest: Women set liquor shop afire in Odisha

Balangir: Tension prevailed in Odisha’s district headquarters town Balangir as hundreds of women set ablaze a liquor shop in the railway station area after ransacking it.

The protesters also ransacked two liquor bars in the area. Later they ransacked a country liquor shop in the same area.

The protestors barged into the liquor shop which was closed by breaking open its lock and set it on fire after ransacking it.

Though police had reached the spot, they failed to control the mob which went on a rampage in front of them.

It’s worth mentioning here that the local women had been protesting against liquor shops in the area for about two months.

The protestors claimed that though they had raised their demand for closure of liquor shops in the area at different forums, authorities had failed to act forcing them to take law into their own hands.

“Drunkards have made lives of women hell in this area. They are sparing none neither daughters nor mothers. They hurl abuses at us. We had demanded the administration and the police to evict these liquor shops from the area but nobody responded to our demands. So we decided to destroy these liquor shops on own and are doing that,” said an agitated woman protestor who was in her middle age and was holding an iron rod in her hand and was smashing liquor bottles.

“The Collector had assured us that the liquor shops in the area would be closed from 15th of this month but nothing has happened. Today is 24th and no action has been taken so we took it into our own hands to demolish these liquor shops,” said an old woman who was one of the protestors.

However, no one from the administration was available for comments over the incident.

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