Bhubaneswar, April 6: Normal life was paralysed across Kalahandi district today due to a dawn-to-dusk strike called by Congress protesting agai-nst the shifting of rail wagon maintenance workshop from Narla to Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The impact of the shutdown was felt across the district in general and at district headquarter town Bhawanipatna and Narla in particular. However, no untoward incident was reported during the bandh.

Hundreds of Congress workers, including Congress leader and former Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das, were arrested while marching towards the collector's office today.

"The rail wagon maintenance workshop project was announced by the UPA government in 2013-14. However, the NDA government has shifted the project away to Visakhapatnam. This is a conspiracy against us," said Das.

Leaders of Kalahandi District Congress Committee also blamed the BJD government for the shifting of the project.

"The state government has failed to provide the required infrastructure for the workshop," said vice-president of Kalahandi District Congress Committee Prashant Nayak, while demanding a rollback of the Centre's decision.

BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma also said that the negligence of the state government was responsible for the relocation of the project. "The project was announced in 2013.

But, the state government never followed up properly and it failed to create the necessary infrastructure even after three years. That is why the project was relocated," said Sharma.

Yesterday, the state government had sought the intervention of railway minister in the matter.

"I hope that recent reports on the shifting of the wagon maintenance workshop from Odisha to Andhra Pradesh are untrue and I would request a line of confirmation from you to assuage the feelings of neglect and hurt which people of Odisha have suffered," chief minister Naveen Patnaik wrote in his letter to Union railway minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu.

On March 21, there was a pandemonium in the Assembly over the issue and it was decided unanimously that the house committee on railways, headed by the speaker, would meet the railway minister over the issue.

The then railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had announced setting up of a new wagon maintenance workshop in the Kalahandi district in the 2013-14 railway budget.

For this project, the state government had offered two patches of land measuring 70.02 acre and 44.70 acre respectively near Narla Road rail station.

Further, on the request of East Coast Railway for permission to draw water from Tel river free of cost and at a subsidised rate, the state government granted complete waiver of water tax.

On March 23, the Congress activists had also staged a rail roko agitation at Narla Road railway station over the issue.