Rourkela, November 07: Demanding release of 30 people arrested on the charge of being Maoists, locals have blocked traffic on a national highway in Silipunji near here for the second day today.
Trees were felled by villagers of Chandiposh, Mundatola and Silipunji under Bonai sub-division of Orissa’s Sundargarh district, including women, to block the highway, police said today.
The agitators, led by MLA George Tirkey resorted to the sit-in demanding that the police release the arrested villagers, who they claimed were innocent.
As a result the road link between the steel city of Rourkela and Bhubaneswar via Talcher was hit and hundreds of vehicles, mostly trucks, were stranded on both sides of the highway, the police said.
The villagers also blocked Rourkela-Barsuan rail line, mostly used for transporting raw materials to Rourkela Steel Plant from the mines, in support of their demand.
–IANS