BHAWANIPATNA: At least two persons, including a jawan, died and many were injured in clashes between police and protesters outside Vedanta Ltd’s aluminium plant at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district on Monday. The deceased were identified by police as Dani Batra, a protester, and Sujeet Kumar Minz, a jawan of Odisha Industrial Security Force (OISF).OISF is a state security force that is under police command.The incident comes less than a year after police opened fire on demonstrators protesting against the operation of another Vedanta plant, its copper smelter in Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, killing 13 people.A group of around 70 local people, who are likely to be displaced due to the commissioning of a proposed project by the company, were on a dharna outside the firm’s main gate in Lanjigarh, demanding contractual jobs and education for their children in a public school free of cost. The agitators alleged that the district police along with the OISF personnel used force and resorted to lathicharge to stifle their voice and threaten them to withdraw the protest.“We were on a peaceful dharna. But police forcibly tried to evict us from the spot. When we resisted, they resorted to lathicharge. This left one Dani Batra dead and several injured,” a protester from a nearby village, who refused to be named fearing police backlash, said. Maheswar Pati, another villager, said the violence broke out after some police personnel misbehaved with the agitators.Police, however, denied the allegations of high-handedness. “Our personnel used utmost restraint to control the mob. The mob went on the rampage, vandalized the company premises and attacked our staff. The protesters even set several articles on the company campus on fire. Many"We are deeply saddened by the news and we offer our condolences to the families of the deceased. We will work with full cooperation with the appropriate authorities who will be looking into the incident. We sincerely appeal to the protestors not to resort to such acts when every situation can be resolved amicably through discussions," a Vedanta statement said. of our personnel were injured in the mob attack. A CISF jawan died due to the mob attack,” Kesinga’s sub-divisional police officer, Gupteswar Bhoi, said.Ashok Kumar Roul, an inspector of OISF said, “The agitators pelted us with stones. They were extremely violent and refused to calm down despite several attempts by us.”Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan hit out at the state government and police over the industrial unrest. He tweeted, “The police supported the company’s goons and attacked poor protesters.”"We are deeply saddened by the news and we offer our condolences to the families of the deceased. We will work with full cooperation with the appropriate authorities who will be looking into the incident. We sincerely appeal to the protestors not to resort to such acts when every situation can be resolved amicably through discussions," a Vedanta statement said.

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