By Our Correspondent
BARBAIL/JODA/KOIRA: Leaders of political parties Mohan Charan Majhi, MLA (BJP), former district BJD president Ashish Chakrabarti and Subal Kumar Das (Congress) also spoke expressing concern over the situation arising out of slurry pipes and supported the truck operators’ call of an ‘economic blockade’ in the interest of the Keonjhar people.
After the meeting being addressed by KDTO secretary Surya Narayan Kar, JATOA secretary Sushanta Kumar Barik, Barbil Association secretary Chandra Prasad Gupta and others, a delegation went to hand over a memorandum to Keonjhar ADM Sushama Bilung in the absence of Collector Ashish Thakre.
Earlier, over 4,000 truck owners from all over the district gathered at the Kali Puja ground and spoke against anti-public policy of the industrial houses by transporting their iron ore from the local mines to Anugul, Kalinganagar and Paradip by pipelines.
Their main target was the slurry pipeline from Barbil to Paradip which is under construction. They alleged that after the construction of this pipeline is over, large numbers of trucks would stop moving throwing truck operators and their families out of jobs and a situation like in Ethiopia in South Africa and Sri Lanka cannot be ruled out in the mines rich Keonjhar district.
