Bhubaneswar, Sep 3 (IANS) Angry over inadequate flood relief materials in Orissa, hundreds of victims Sunday attacked the convoy of Chief Minister Naveen Pantaik while he was visiting the worst-hit Kendrapada district, police said.
The incident occurred when he went to see a breach developed by floodwaters at Chagharia Chhack on the national highway 5(A) located on the outskirts of the Kendrapada town.
At least 500 people mobbed him and shouted slogans demanding immediate relief and polythene for temporary shelter.
The chief minister could not reach the site and returned to visit another breach in a nearby area. Some of the irate villagers pelted stones at the vehicle and did not allow Patnaik to get off the car.
Patnaik returned to Kendrapada town and reviewed the flood situation.
Earlier, Jyoti Prakash Das, district collector of Kendrapada, was replaced by the state's additional transport commissioner Kashinath Sahu. Das was transferred after Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal had to face the wrath of the flood victims when he visited the district Saturday.
The fifth round of floods triggered by low pressure in the Bay of Bengal has affected over 1.5 million people in the state's 12 districts. Kendrapada still remains cut off from the coastal towns of Cuttack and Balasore.
The district is flanked by Paika Luna and Chitropla River, tributaries of the Mahanadi river system. Three breaches developed in the embankments of these rivers causing extensive damage to several villages.
Hundreds of villagers surrounded and heckled Samal when he arrived in the district, a senior relief official said.
The villagers alleged that over 30 villages have not yet received relief and that the district collector had not visited the flood-hit areas. They also said that sufficient boats had not been arranged to tackle the calamity.
"That is why he was handed the transfer order," the official added.
The state has also ordered a probe into the negligence on the part of the district administration in handling the floods, he said.
Floods in the last two months have affected over 3 million people.