Baloda Bazar-Bhatapara (Chhattisgarh): The Chhattisgarh government has appointed a new District Collector and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Baloda Bazar district which saw incidents of violent protest recently.
The transfer orders were issued late Tuesday night. IAS officer Deepak Soni has been appointed as the new District Collector of Baloda Bazar, while Vijay Agarwal is the new Superintendant of Police.
The outgoing district collector KL Chauhan and Superintendent of Police Sadanand Kumar were transferred to the other departments of the government on Tuesday night.
Soni has been transferred to the MGNREGA department as Additional Commissioner in Charge while Chauhan has been transferred as Special Secretary of Administration in the Home Ministry.
Several policemen were injured after a protest by the Satnami community at the Collector's office in Balodabazar over alleged damage to a religious site of the Satnami community turned violent. Stone pelting and arson were reported during the violence with government offices being vandalised and vehicles torched, police said.
Visuals from the spot showed a large crowd attempting to breach police barricades defying water cannons.
Sadanand Kumar said the protestors had given in writing an assurance that they would protest in a peaceful manner. Barricades had been put up at four spots but the protestors, he said arrived through another and broke down the barricades.
"They jostled policemen and pelted stones...Several of our Policemen got injured. Our officers too got injured...They also entered Collectorate premises while pelting stones, they set vehicles here on fire. They also vandalised the premises. Fire was brought under control. Incidents of violence were reported in the city too. Those too were brought under control. Situation is under control now...Strict action will be taken...We have photos and videos...we will take action on that basis," he added.
The mob torched a large number of vehicles and also damaged firefighting vehicles, police said adding that some vehicles parked close to the Collector office were also damaged. (ANI)
