Dhinkia villagers protest fund misuse by ex-Sarpanch

PARADIP: Irked over the alleged misappropriation of funds by former sarpanch and anti-Posco leader Sisir Mohapatra, people of Dhinkia took out a rally on Wednesday and observed bandh. The villagers alleged that Mohapatra didn’t return cash worth `10 lakh to the villagers that the latter had allegedly collected from various sources for the development of the panchayats. The protestors sat on dharna in front of Mohapatra’s house.

According to sources, two dredging corporations had been entrusted with the task of dredging and reclamation for levelling and grading of oil refinery expansion of IOCL about 10 to 12 years back. National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) had suggested that dredging should be done at a point 8 km from Jatadhar river mouth coastline. 

The measures suggested by NIO were ignored by these corporations as they managed to gain support from the locals by bribing them. The protesters claimed that the contractors of these firms had given money to Mohapatra for their vested interests. It had been alleged that members of Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti, led by Mohapatra, extorted money from the rivals of Posco to intensify the stir against the setting up of its steel plant at Dhinkia. “Several anti-Posco leaders are languishing in prisons. They don’t have the money to hire lawyers for their defence,” the locals said.

Earlier, the villagers had convened a meeting on February 9 and found that Mohapatra had misappropriated funds worth `15 lakh that he had collected from various sources in the name of development. The former Sarpanch had apparently promised the villagers to return `10 lakh by February 27. However, the villagers claimed that he went back on his words. The villagers, then, sought the intervention of the Collector and the Superintendent of Police to take  action against the ex-Sarpanch. 

“We have been forced to intensify our stir as the administration and police didn’t take any action in this matter. We want Mohapatra to return the money so that it can be spent for the benefit of anti-Posco leaders, who are languishing in prison. The money can also be used for various developmental activities,” said Babaji Samantray, a protestor.