Bhubaneswar: Tension flared outside the official residence of Odisha’s Commerce and Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena on Saturday as activists of the Youth Congress clashed with police during a protest against the state government’s handling of Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate enforcement.
The protest saw hundreds of Youth Congress workers, led by state unit president Ranjait Patra, taking out a bicycle rally towards the minister’s residence. Police intercepted the rally before it could reach the premises, leading to a scuffle between the demonstrators and security personnel. Several activists were briefly detained, according to officials.
The agitators accused the government of repeatedly changing its stance on the “No PUC, No Fuel” policy, calling it confusing and burdensome for the public. Addressing reporters at the protest site, Patra said the government’s shifting deadlines had caused widespread inconvenience.
He pointed out that the transport minister had initially announced that vehicles without valid PUC certificates would not be supplied fuel from January 1, triggering long queues at PUC centres, which Patra claimed were inadequate to handle the sudden surge. Following public backlash, the government first deferred the deadline to February 1 and later extended it further to April 1.
“What kind of governance is this? Decisions are being changed repeatedly, putting ordinary people in trouble,” Patra said, demanding that the policy be withdrawn entirely within three days.
Warning of intensified agitation, the Youth Congress leader said that if the government failed to roll back what he described as an “anti-people” policy, party workers would park hundreds of vehicles outside the residences of the chief minister and other ministers in Bhubaneswar. He also cautioned that ministers would face protests across Odisha during their official visits.
Responding to the agitation, BJP youth wing president Avilash Panda accused the Congress of politicising the issue. He maintained that vehicle owners are required to comply with PUC norms and said the government had extended the deadline till April 1 to ensure a smoother process for citizens to obtain certificates.
Meanwhile, opposition voices within the Congress continued to criticise the government’s approach. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das on Friday had questioned what he called selective enforcement of pollution norms. He alleged that while industries were allowed to pollute without consequence, ordinary citizens—particularly unemployed youths—were being penalised heavily.
The issue has also sparked dissent beyond the Congress. The Youth and Student wings of the Biju Janata Dal staged protests on Friday evening against the enforcement strategy. Leader of the Opposition Naveen Patnaik, in a post on X, described the BJP government’s handling of the PUC rollout as “gross mismanagement” marked by repeated policy reversals that have caused significant hardship to the people of Odisha.
