Odisha Assembly adjourned amid uproar over Namtara

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 11:

Speaker Niranjan Pujari today adjourned the Odisha Assembly till 12.30 PM on the first day of the second leg of the Budget Session following noisy scenes by the Opposition on police excesses committed in Namtara village under Rajkanika block in Kendrapara on campaigners against liquor trade in the area on March 8.

The Opposition has served a notice for adjournment motion on the issue alleging terrorism by police which had resorted to baton charging and firing on women who were protesting against a liquor shop in their village.

The House was first adjourned till 11.30 AM during the Question Hour as the Opposition members both from the Congress and BJP shouted slogans decrying the government for the Namtara incident .

While the Congress members displayed torn sarees collected from the incident site, Basanta Panda, leader of the BJP legislature party, displayed a live bullet collected from  trouble torn site. Opposition members displayed posters and placards mocking BJD’s slogans like ‘Maa ku samman’

It may be mentioned here that as many as nine villagers injured in the firing and baton charging by the police and are undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack.

Besides, over ten police personnel and three media persons also sustained injuries during the clash between the anti-liquor campaigners and police.

Police have arrested six persons in connection with clash and have filed cases against over sixty persons. The protesting villagers had torched a police vehicle.

While the police claimed that the protestors had ransacked the licensed liquor shop and had pelted stones on policemen, television visuals had shown police too had hurled stones at the protestors who were mainly women.