Balangir, March 12: Lower Suktel Irrigation Project Action Committee activists today paralysed functioning of different state government and central government offices here to protest against the government’s delay in starting the project.

The activists had called for a strike in all the government and private offices of the district headquarters township. They had, however, exempted all education institutions from the strike.

People, especially those who come from the rural areas of the district, were worst-hit by the strike as most of them were unaware of the protest. Many villagers had come to various government offices and banks, only to return empty-handed.

Sarat Bag of Talpali village, who had to come the State Bank of India in the town for some work, came to know about the strike only after reaching here. “I had great difficulty coming here enduring the heat. And now, I will have to return without my work being done,” he said.

Though some offices and banks had initially tried to start working in the morning, the Suktel activists allegedly shut down all those establishments by using force.

The action committee’s president, Gopaljee Panigrahi, said the government had betrayed the people of Balangir by not starting the project work despite repeated assurances.

“In its meeting with our delegates, the state government had given assurance to begin the work of the project. It had even fixed January 15 for starting of the work. But if failed to start work on that particular day. Now, the government is silent about the project. So we had no option but to protest against their indifferent attitude towards Balangir,” Panigrahi said.

Santosh Pradhan, the action committee secretary, said the committee had decided to shut down only government and private offices and exempt educational institutes to minimise public inconvenience.