Durg (Chhattisgarh): Workers and followers of a councillor engaged in pitched battle with police after being stopped from forcibly throwing open an under-construction underpass in Chhattisgarh's Durg district on Thursday.
Amid the delay in the opening of Raipur Naka underbridge, ward residents under the leadership of Councilor Arun Singh of Durg ward 21 tried to throw it open. Following it, police drove the ward workers from the spot even as the crowd started protesting with police resorting to lathi-charge. Singh among others was detained by police.
Earlier, Arun Singh had given a memorandum to the collector and demanded that the underbridge be thrown open. Singh had also warned that if it was not inaugurated soon, he himself will dedicate it to the general public on September 15.
Singh alleged that the underbridge was not being inaugurated at the behest of Durg MLA Arun Vora. "He wants to get the underbridge inaugurated by the CM, but the CM is not giving him time. In such a situation, the common people are getting upset," he said. Vora has already given a statement that "the construction is not yet complete as the lights have not been installed".
SSDM Durg Mukesh Rawat said, "we understand the issues faced by the people of the area and only to solve the issue, this underbridge is being constructed. The construction is underway while the people of the area demand to inaugurate the bridge today. In response to the public's violence, the police had to take action."
