Steel City comes to a standstill

ROURKELA: Shops and commercial establishments remained completely closed as Rourkela observed a bandh on Friday protesting the judge-assault incident.
The bandh, called by the Rourkela Bar Association was by and large peaceful, except minor incidents of bandh supporters forcefully stopping traffic by blocking roads at various areas of the city.
In New Delhi, BJP MP Rudranarayan Pani led a delegation of lawyers and met the Union law minister Veerappa Moily and apprised him of the incident.Pani also demanded the minister to intervene for strong action against the culprits.
In Rourkela commercial vehicles like auto rickshaws, busses, trucks were not at all seen on the road. People mostly used two-wheelers to move in the city. Most of the schools remained closed. A few of them opened only to conduct examinations. Significantly, the agitators had not obstructed school students on their way to appear in examinations.
Apart the members of the RBA, various political parties like the BJP, the Congress and the CPM and most of the trade unions of the city also extended their support to the bandh call. The members of RBA claimed the bandh was a grand success and termed it a "result of prolonged public dissatisfaction with the police in the city."
"We express our sincere thanks to the people of Rourkela for extending their support to our call," said Ramesh Bal, President of the RBA. "The overwhelming success of this bandh clearly reflects the compounding anger of Rourkela public over police," Bal added.
"The people of Rourkela have been the victim of police-atrocity for the last two years. On Friday they gave vent to their anger," Bal said.
Significantly, policemen were hardly seen in the city during the bandh. Unlike other bandhs, not a single arrest was reported here on Friday.
The High Court Bar Association, which has been on a cease work over this issue for the last five days, has called off their agitation on Friday. However, the RBA decided to continue their agitation over the issue since their demand of initiating a legal action against the Rourkela SP has not been fulfilled.