BJP activists burn effigies of Patnaik over Vedanta issue

BHUBANESWAR - Hundreds of activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday took out a procession in Orissa and burnt effigies of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, seeking his resignation over the Vedanta University issue.

Carrying posters and banners, the men and women of the partys youth wing marched at state capital Bhubaneswar and raised slogans against the chief minister and his government.

He has been showing undue favours to various corporates, sacrificing the states interests. The high court judgment on the proposed Vedanta University is an example, said Bibhuti Jena, a protest leader, adding that Patnaik and his council of ministers must resign.

A division bench of the Orissa High Court Tuesday quashed the process of land acquisition for Vedanta University and directed the authorities to return the acquired land to its owners.

The Anil Agarwal Foundation, promoted by NRI industrialist and chairman of Britain’s Vedanta Resources Anil Agarwal, was setting up the multi-disciplinary Vedanta University near the Konark-Puri marine drive, some 60 km from here.

The university was to come up in over 6,000 acres of land with a phased investment of Rs.150 billion ($3.5 billion).