Malkangiri: Demanding the immediate
release of abducted Malkangiri District Collector RV Krishna
and a junior engineer, a large number of tribals, including
women and children on Sunday staged a rally and put up road
blockade in Chitrakonda.
Shouting slogans and carrying placards, the protesters
marched through the block headquarter town of Chitrakonda
enroute to Badapada forests, to mobilise public opinion
against violence and ask Maoists to release the hostages.
The collector and junior engineer Pabitra Majhi were
kidnapped by Maoists from Badapada in Chitrakonda block during
a visit to attend a camp for development work on Wednesday.
"We will go deep into the forests upto Jantapai and
motivate the villagers, who are sympathisers of the Maoists,
to release the duo," a leader spearheading the rally said.
Meanwhile, an all-faith protest meeting was held here
today seeking immediate safe release of the collector and the
junior engineer.
Holding placards and shouting slogans seeking safe
release of the collector, students of a school for disabled
run by an NGO, also took out a rally in the town and then
joined the all-faith protest meeting.
Malkangiri district OAS officers' association also held a
meeting presided over by its president Sundarlal Sil today and
passed a resolution seeking release of Krishna.
"We appeal to Maoists to immediately release the
collector and junior engineer," Sil said, adding, unless they
were released, the OAS officers in the district would wear
black badge as a mark of protest from Monday.
Meanwhile, this Maoist-prone district was cut-off from
the rest of the world as the two entry points to the district,
one from Gobindpalli ghat and the other from Chitrakonda,
remained blocked.
While Maoists had blocked the Jeypore-Malkangiri road
at Gobindpali ghat road by felling huge trees since Wednesday,
efforts were on to clear it.
On the other hand, in protest against the abduction of
the Collector, the local people have blocked the road by
felling trees atop Chitrakonda ghat roads.
As a result, supply of essential commodities has been
badly affected while petroleum products remained out of reach
as no vehicle was entering the district since last four days.
Similar peace rallies and meetings were held in other
places of the state.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, February 20, 2011, 20:55