BHUBANESWAR: The campaigning by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the panchayat polls has picked up pace and so has the Congress demand for his resignation over the Pipili gangrape case and a CBI probe into it. The scheduled caste department of the OPCC on Tuesday staged a demonstration at the PMG Square and burnt the effigy of the Chief Minister over the issue. Besides the Pipili gangrape case, several other incidents of atrocities against women have come to the fore during the last one month, a OPCC release said. Most of the victims are Dalit girls and women, Congress leaders alleged citing instances at Bhadrak, Balasore, Baripada, Paikmal and Konark. Kanyashrams in tribal areas have also become unsafe for the inmates, the party said. President of the scheduled caste department Ripunath Seth alleged that as the Home Department is under the Chief Minister, police, in most cases, are trying to hush up the cases rather than going after the accused. Congress leaders, including former ministers Jagannath Patnaik and Suresh Kumar Routray, Sibananda Ray, former MLA Nimai Sarkar, convener of the scheduled caste department Bankanidhi Behera courted arrest. The OPCC also condemned the alleged attempt to kidnap a girl here on Monday. The incident reflects the deteriorating law and order situation in the State and laxity of the police administration, OPCC general secretary Arjya Kumar Gyanendra said. Reiterating the allegation against Naveen that he flouted the model code of conduct for the panchayat polls while campaigning at Tangi on Sunday, Gyanendra said he had been doing that ever since the polls were announced. He threatened that the Congress would oppose the violations by launching agitations across the State if these did not stop.
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