BHUBANESWAR: Though Congress-sponsored Bharat bandh was by and large peaceful in most parts of the state on Monday, tension prevailed following scuffles between police personnel and protestors in Bhubaneswar and in Puri district. Describing the bandh as peaceful and successful, Congress state president Niranjan Patnaik said he already formed a three-member committee to verify the charges of misconduct against his party workers.The bandh against rising oil prices brought road and rail traffic to a halt and adversely affected normal life across the state. Commuters faced immense hardship due to road and rail blockades in districts. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, MLAs and government officials were forced to take detours to reach the assembly and secretariat here. Some MLAs and officials were forced to walk to their workplaces after protestors blocked their vehicles midway.Tension mounted on the national highway - 16 in front of Satsang Vihar in Bhubaneswar when a group of unruly Congress protestors intercepted a police van, allegedly misbehaved with the cops and forcibly stuck a party flag on the bonnet. Director general of police R P Sharma denied reports of violence from anywhere in the state. “We had mobilized adequate security force to avoid any untoward incident. No violence was reported anywhere,” Sharma told TOI.In Puri district’s Kakatpur village, Congress supporters allegedly broke open the gate of local Tehsildar office and manhandled a staff. However, no complaint with police was lodged till filing of the report. “I have constituted a three-member committee, headed by working president Chiranjib Biswal, to examine whether our party workers created nuisance at Bhubaneswar and Kakatpur,” Niranjan Patnaik said.Niranjan said people spontaneously supported the bandh. “We got overwhelming response from people. Both BJP at the Centre and BJD in Odisha miserably failed to contain rising fuel prices. Centre is not ready to include petroleum products in GST and BJD is reluctant to slash VAT in the state. People will teach both the parties a lesson in the forthcoming elections,” Niranjan said. The party state president said for the first time Congress opened a control room for the people in distress. “We also protested in a unique way by giving roses to commuters, including bureaucrats and police officers and requested them to support the bandh. Contrary to public perception that Congress is synonymous with violence, our peaceful protest proved them wrong,” Niranjan said. BJD and BJP described the Bharat Bandh as complete failure and said the Congress subjected lakhs of people to massive inconvenience and trouble.

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