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| Sisir Dandia |
Bhubaneswar/Sambalpur, Sept. 21: The state government’s hesitation to arrest Sisir Dandia, the prime accused in the violence of Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital, has raised many eyebrows.
Junior doctors, who continue to be on strike despite the college having reopened yesterday, have been demanding the arrest of 44-year-old Dandia, the Burla unit president of Biju Janata Dal, under provisions of the National Security Act. The agitation by around 3,000 doctors of three medical colleges of the state entered its 16th day today.
A non-matriculate, Dandia, who lost the civic body elections for the Burla Notified Area Council in 2010, is believed to be close to a powerful ruling party leader from western Orissa who, in turn, happens to be in the good books of a senior BJD leader and close aide of chief minister Naveen Patnaik. His relations with health minister Prasanna Acharya, however, appear to be strained.
Dandia was arrested on September 5 in connection with a clash with the students of VSS Medical College. He was released on bail on September 9. Even before this incident, there were five cases against him. Son of a retired Class IV employee of the medical college, Dandia is a contractor by profession. He had also opposed the organisation of Burla Mahotsav in January this year following which a case was lodged against him. During the visit of chief minister Naveen Patnaik to Burla in February, Dandia had an altercation with Gunasagar Das, superintendent of VSS Medical College. Later, a case was lodged against him.
He was also involved in cases of violence against the students of the medical college on July 13. Students from several colleges of Sambalpur under the banner of Paschim Orissa Chhatra Kriyanusthan Committee today staged a dharna in front of the office of the revenue divisional commissioner of northern division in Sambalpur demanding arrest of Dandia. They also submitted a memorandum to the chief minister and governor through the RDC.
Though the government revoked the indefinite closure of the VSS Medical College yesterday, students did not turn up to attend classes. Nilamadhab Prusty, member of the Joint Action Committee, said: “We fail to understand why the government is not arresting Dandia under the NSA. He has been creating trouble here for the last two years. The government should arrest him before appealing to the students to rejoin classes. We feel threatened as he is roaming around freely.”
On his part, Dandia apologised to the students and promised not to return to the college again. “The health system should not be crippled because of me. A section has hatched a conspiracy against me. Still, I promise to cooperate with all and not cause any problems in future,” Dandia told The Telegraph.
The government, however, has not gone beyond prohibiting his entry on the VSS Medical College campus. On being asked why the state government was not taking action against Dandia, a visibly upset health minister Prasanna Acharya said: “The government is taking action keeping all aspects of law into consideration. Arresting someone is the job of the police.”
Sources said even though Acharya seemed to initiate action against Dandia, the district administration was not cooperating as he enjoyed a lot of political clout. Even as the students had sought intervention of chief minister Naveen Patnaik and an appointment with him, none of the young MLAs helped facilitate the meeting.