Locals block highways demanding water in Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 18: 

Residents today blocked National Highways in three different places of Odisha demanding facilitation of drinking water in their areas.

While villagers of Tilakapada and Kaladi under Gudari panchayat staged a road-blockade at Tilakapada square of Phulbani, similar scenes were witnessed at at Dhenkikote in Keonjhar where the locals blocked NH-251 and at Maneswar square of Sambalpur as well.

In each case, hundreds of agitators including women and children blocked the highway with pots, buckets and shouted slogans against the administration demanding facilitation of water.

“We hardly get any drinking water for ourselves here. Forget about the water to feed out livestock and for household chores. We have been demanding facilitation of water to the administration time and again, but in vain. That is why today we resorted to road blockade,” said an agitator in Phulbani.

Vehicular communication was badly hit on the roads because of the demonstrations. Hundreds of vehicles on both sides were seen stranded in scorching heat in all three places.

The blockades, however, were lifted after the local administrations reached out to the agitators and assured of water supply.