Rourkela wears desolate look

ROURKELA, April 7: The whole of Rajgangpur, the cement city of Orissa, wore a desolate look for the second day today as tension mounted over the Akhada procession issue during Ram Navami.
The tension is palpable in this small industrial town of Sundergarh district. The administration had earlier roped in 23 platoons of state police and later today, armed policemen from the Jharsuguda OSAP had been brought in to meet any eventuality. The whole town, where prohibitory orders were issued, is under the control of men in uniform.
There are more policemen than civilians on the road. All the shops, including small kiosks and other business establishments, have kept their shutters down fearing trouble.
All the 23 akhadas with their flags, and other religious items, are still squatting on the road due to the impasse between the organisers of the procession and the district administration.
The akhadas, who are there since yesterday, will not budge unless a favourable decision is forthcoming from the authorities.
And today, in a spontaneous move, over 1,000 persons staged a rail roko at the Rajgangpur station as they burnt logs and tyres on the track to stall rail traffic for over two hours.
During that time, there was no railway movement on the route.
At least 200 people besieged the Rajgangpur police station for over three hours. Police resorted to a mild lathicharge, in which over 40 people were injured, including 15 women.
Every year, akhada processions are taken out with religious fervour all over the city and this year was no different. But, this year, the district administration did not allow the display of traditional Hindu weapons during the procession.
As a result, the joint akhada committee, the Rajgangpur Akhada Samiti (RAS) held a meeting with the administration yesterday and finally 16 of them agreed to bring out a procession without any weapons.
Besides, they also agreed to change the route. No procession will be allowed to pass through minority community localities or places of worship.
The RSA agreed to all these conditions but pleaded that they should at least be allowed to carry five swords. The administration did not grant the request.
And this led to trouble and the procession was stopped midway.
A group of citizens wanted to talk to the collector on the issue, but she did not meet them, leading to an escalation of tension.