BHUBANESWAR (PTI): Rail and road transport was seriously affected in the coastal districts of eastern Indian province of Orissa to protest against the hike in reservation for the scheduled castes and tribes in educational institutions,
Official sources said two trains were cancelled and several others on the eastern railway routes affected as anti-reservationists squatted on the tracks
Chief Minister Biju Patnaik expressed his anguish over the continuing stir,
“People must understand that this type of vandalism does not pay,” he told newsmen in the capital, adding, “adding, “uplift of the oppressed class is a must.”
The strikes called in the capital Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, by the national students of India, the students wing of the Congress-I, to protest against the detention of their president Lalatendu Bidyadhar Moharpatra and other agitators under national security act, passed off peacefully, official sources said.
Normal life was accepted as only government offices functioned in the cities, prolonged disruption in road and rail services has resulted in steep rise in prices of essential commodities. The provincial transport corporation has not plied its fleet of over 700 buses for nearly a for might now.
Patnaik had opposed the 58% reservation in jobs and educational institutions for backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes three years back, as sought by his party, the Janata Dal, a member of admixture of centrist parties under the National Front which had replaced the Congress I at the Center.
He was the first chief minister to suggest economic criterion as the guiding principle in reservations instead of caste as envisaged by his party. The nationwide protest against the erstwhile National Front government’s reservation policy was very potent in the province with the first deaths due to self-immolation, a form of protest adopted by the agitators, occurring there.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 11, 1992
