Police personnel speak to protesters on Tankapani Road in Bhubaneswar on Monday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 24: Residents of Basuaghai on the city outskirts today blocked the road connecting Bhubaneswar to Balianta through Tankapani Road protesting against a liquor shop that has come up around 100 metres from a Sai temple.

Around 500 people, most of them women, under the banner of Navajyoti Mahila Mahasangha and Panchayat Yuvak Sangha, sat on the road shouting slogans against the authorities for allowing the liquor shop to be set up there. The road blockade created a big traffic jam for more than two hours.

The protesters presented a memorandum to the authorities concerned through the police. They threatened to intensify their agitation unless action was taken against the liquor shop owner within seven days.

Secretary of the Mahila Mahasangha Sulochana Das said that though the excise department had issued a licence to set up the liquor shop at Ranga Bazar in Balianta block, the owner had opened it in Bhubaneswar block.

“The liquor shop has been set up close to both the Sai temple and a public school,” said Das.

The women alleged that the liquor shop attracted a large number of goons who created problems for local residents. “They pass abusive comments at passers-by, particularly women and schoolchildren, and also misbehave with them,” said Minati Pingua, member of the local panchayat samiti. She added that the owner of the liquor shop had threatened the villagers with dire consequences if they showed any resistance to his shop being there.

Local zilla parishad member Sangram Keshari Paikray, who led today’s protest, said that earlier, the local residents had objected the opening of the liquor shop once, but the authorities allowed the owner to set up the shop around one-and-a-half years ago.

Two platoons of police had been deployed at the spot to keep a check on the law and order situation. After the police officials promised the protesters they would inform the authorities concerned about the problem, they ended their protest. The residents submitted a memorandum addressed to the chief minister through assistant commissioner of police Bishnu Prasad Mishra.

“We have given the authorities seven days to take a decision and during this period, the shop will remain closed. Unless steps are taken to relocate the liquor shop, we will come back on the road on October 2 and demolish the shop,” said a protester.

Police said they would inform those concerned about it. “As the setting up of liquor shop comes under the excise department, we cannot comment on this. We managed to disperse the crowd today and restored normality,” said Mishra.

Bhubaneswar excise superintendent Harish Chandra Nayak said the shop owner had a valid licence and there was nothing illegal about it operating from there. “We have not received the local residents’ complaint. We will take steps once we get it,” he said.