A Congress supporter tries to save himself from a policeman’s baton in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. (AFP)

The city centre turned into a battleground on Thursday with the police clashing with Congress activists. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 6: Rallies and demonstrations are a nightmare for the residents of the capital. The Congress rally today was no different.

The rally, which began around 11am and continued till 7pm, forced a large number of local residents to stay indoors. One resident on Mahatma Gandhi Marg said she was fed up with these events, which disrupted life in the city.

“We have approached the authorities concerned many times to shift the venue but there was no move. So, we approached the court in 2007 and pleaded that the state government should stop giving permission for rallies and demonstrations on this busy stretch and shift the venue to another place, as it was causing serious noise pollution,” said K. Jayalaxmi, a senior citizen.

“The court had given a directive regarding the matter, but, nothing happened, as the district administration and other stakeholders could not arrive at a decision regarding moving the agitation hub to another venue. We had also hoped that the decision of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to collect Rs 1,000 each from the agitating groups would help. But now it seems, there is no respite for us when big rallies take place,” she added.

Jeevan Patnaik, who teaches at a nearby college and was passing by a lane today when the violent mob attacked a lady constable, said the sight was so shocking that he felt ashamed on the behaviour of the protesters.

“Imagine how this will affect our kids. The state government should do something to shift the rally venue from Lower PMG Square,” he said.

The demonstrators fought a pitched battle for hours trying to break a barricade and threw stones at the police. While the agitators were trying to break the barricade, the cops adopted various means to disperse the mob. While the cops were trying to push the mob back, the mob retaliated forcing the police to take a few steps backward.

During the pitched battle, the police used number of teargas shells. At one point of time a protester was seen collecting a live shell while it was releasing gas and threw it back to the police. Finally, the police resorted to batons when teargas failed to disperse the mob.

“When the baton charge began, people tried to climb the boundary walls of the nearby houses. Some even jumped inside. We were worried about the safety of our vehicles and other property. We were in a state of shock. The sight of the agitators pelting stones at the cops was a frightening one,” said a resident of Mahatma Gandhi Marg.

The BMC authorities have so far collected Rs 36,000 from 36 agitating organisations, but the collection of Rs 1,000 per unit was never achieved from all the agitating groups. Sources said that in the past 12 months, more than 100 rallies were held at Lower PMG Square with 35 of them having crowd volumes of 10,000 or more.

“The solid waste generation after rallies in Lower PMG Square has become a huge problem. As the place becomes crowded with makeshift shops and eating joints sprouting all over, people throw away used plates and other waste all over the venue. The civic authorities should be strict and collect fines so that with the money collected they can carry out cleanliness drives in the area after the agitation is over,” said environmentalist Bijay Mishra.

“If the civic body is collecting fees there should be facilities such as mobile toilets so that the nearby residents do not suffer,” he added.

The big clash

• The city police had anticipated violence during the rally and had removed stones and bricks from the Mahatma Gandhi Marg two days ago. But the mob collected stones from nearby areas and an under-construction road near Master Canteen Square

• The protesters broke bamboo barricades and used those to target
the policemen

• Two platoons of security forces were provided with a special outfit to protect themselves from stones or other missile-like objects. These weigh around 4kg and are made up of rubber. However, not being used to wearing such outfits, many policemen removed those and were hit by stones

• A boy of around 10 years was also seen chasing a police officer with a stick in his hand. There were many young boys in the mob

• When the situation returned to normal, the police searched nearly a dozen closed shops in the locality. There they held many of the protesters who were hiding inside the shops