Bhubaneswar, March 21: Activists of various social organisations today staged a demonstration outside chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati's residence, asking him to leave the government accommodation and move to his personal house.

The demonstrators alleged that Pati had a house at Nayapalli. However, even after repeated attempts, the chief secretary was not available for comments.

A protester said that while the poor people were being evicted from government land and not even provided with the promised plots of land, the government officials and politicians were enjoying the government accommodations even though they were allotted houses or plots under the discretionary quota.

Convener of the organisations Pratap Sahu said the agitation would intensify in the coming days if the government did not evict the officials, who had private houses in their name or that of their family members.

"The prime motive of the protest is against the high and mighty in the administration. They are provided with government plots and houses. But still, they tend to reside in the accommodations provided by the government," said Sahu.

Around 28 mass organisations took part in today's demonstration.

The protesters said that in the coming days, they would hold such agitations outside the residences of all those officials, who had occupied government accommodations despite having private houses.

"We will hold such protests for the next one month," said Pradip Pradhan, one of the leaders, who led the demonstration.

Police, however, swung into action as soon as the activists started their demonstration and took around 50 of them into custody. Later in the after, the agitators were released.

A senior police official said they dispersed the protesters once they started their demonstration outside the chief secretary's residence. "We will take our action against them according to law, and if needed, they will be booked and arrested," said Assem Panda, assistant commissioner of police (zone-I).