Bhubaneswar: Congress demands sacking of official for disrespecting scribe

Bhubaneswar: Widespread protests erupted at several places across Odisha on Thursday against senior bureaucrat and state sports secretary Vishal Dev for being blatantly “disrespectful” to a correspondent of local television channel during a press meet in his chamber.

Members of the Youth Congress and Odisha unit of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) took to streets in the capital city Bhubaneswar and attempted to gherao the residence of Vishal Dev in protest of the incident.

Hundreds of protesters burnt the effigy of Dev and demanded apology from him. “It’s a ticket scam and crores of rupees have been misappropriated in the Men’s Hockey World Cup besides irregularities in ticket sale and preparations for the event,” NSUI leader Kiran Sahoo alleged. Condemning the way the bureaucrat behaved with the journalist, the youth leader said that the IAS officer should immediately apologise or else Congress will intensify its protest. “We will not back down from hurling eggs at the residence of Vishal Dev if he does not apologise soon,” he said. The Congress activists also alleged rampant corruption in the online booking of tickets for the Men’s Hockey World Cup scheduled to begin from November 27.

Keeping in view the law and order situation, police detained several members of the party from the spot.

Similarly, the Youth Congress in Chandbali block of Bhadrak district also expressed discontentment at the behaviour of Dev towards the journalist.