Politics play over Hukitola tragedy

PARADIP: Politics over human tragedy was on full display as leaders of various political parties on Friday made a beeline to Hasina village for offering condolence and provide ex-gratia to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones in Hukitola boat mishap.

As the administration prepared to distribute ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to each bereaved family in presence of Women and Child Development Minister Prafulla Samal, local MP Kulamani Samal and Cuttack-Baribati MLA Debasish Samantaray, local sarpanch, a BJP leader, cried foul.

Mangarajpur Sarpanch Purnima Tripathy alleged that since she belonged to BJP, the block officials on the direction of ruling party leaders did not inform her about the ex-gratia disbursement.

Tripathy’s supporters even staged a demonstration during disbursement of the ex-gratia. They alleged that the ruling party leaders were trying to capitalise on the tragedy and woo voters for the upcoming General Elections.

As tension prevailed in the village, police had to intervene to diffuse the situation. After the cops managed to pacify the agitators, the administration distributed the ex-gratia. Earlier, local MLA Damodar Rout visited Hasina and offered condolences to family members of the boat mishap victims. He also distributed Rs 3000 to the kin of each of the nine victims. After the ouster of Rout from BJD, Samantray is being projected to contest from Paradip Assembly seat.

Meanwhile Bapi Sarkhel, Congress aspirant from Paradip, party leader Pramod Jena and former MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai also visited Hasina and met the family members of victims. On Thursday, they had staged demonstration and road blockade demanding a hike in the ex-gratia amount from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
Ex-MP Baijayant Panda, former BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra are likely to visit Hasina on Saturday.
Besides, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan and other BJP leaders are slated to visit the village on Sunday, sources said.