PARLAKHEMUNDI:On the first day of filing of nominations, hundreds of villagers locked Kiarama gram panchayat (GP) office under Nuagada block protesting merger of their villages in the newly created Sunderdanga panchayat on Wednesday. The villagers of Artilima, Burkapeta, Ramagiri, Chanhala Shahi, Dekapali and Paikapada staged the protest claiming that if they are inlcuded under Sunderdanga, the panchayat headquarters would be 15 km from their villages while under the present panchayat, Kiarama, it is just around three to four kms. No nomination was filed on the day as the Kiarama panchayat office remained locked, said sources.
Paralakhemundi Sub-Collector Anama Patra said, senior officers of the district administration led by Project Administrator, ITDA would visit the panchayat office on Thursday and resolve the issue. Meanwhile, nominations in the seven blocks of Gajapati district was filed without any trouble. One nomination was filed for ZP member, 79 for Sarpanch, 27 for Samiti member and 234 for Ward member as per the data received from District Panchayat office.