Bhubaneswar: The Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday announced that it will hold a two-phase agitation between August 1 and 14 to protest “rising cases” of sexual assault on women and girls in Odisha.

The ruling BJP ridiculed the BJD and cited several women assault cases during its (Naveen Patnaik government) tenure and asked both the BJD and Congress to stop shedding crocodile tears in the name of women’s safety.

The BJD said college and varsity students will write to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi highlighting how “unsafe” they are from campus to sea beach. The students will also submit memoranda to all police stations and also to SPs in different districts, seeking a safe academic atmosphere. The BJD MLAs Byomakesh Ray and Devi Ranjan Tripathy, at a press conference here, said the party has decided to launch its agitation in two phases.

In Phase-1, the students will submit memorandum to the DGP from August 1 to August 8 and then they will write to the Chief Minister from August 9 to August 14, Ray said, adding that the students on campus feel “unsafe” which is evident from the Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College incident in Balasore where a woman student died due to self-immolation after being denied justice in a sexual harassment case involving a teacher.

Teenage girl students staying in different State-run hostels are also reporting pregnancy, which exposes their safety in residential schools, Ray said. He said a woman student, while holidaying at Gopalpur sea beach, was raped. Similarly, a 15-year-old girl was set on fire by miscreants while she was walking down to her house at Balanga in Puri district.

Banki MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathi lashed out at the State government and alleged that the State BJP government is “sleeping” while girls are raped and assaulted. The BJD leaders said they have so far staged agitation across colleges, gheraoed the State secretariat and held demonstrations before three Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) offices.

Tripathi said, “Odisha has been shamed and condemned at the national and international levels due to the recent incidents”. He warned the State government that the BJD would further intensify its protests if the State government “fails” to ensure a safe environment for girls on campuses across Odisha.

However, BJP leader and Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan rejected the BJD allegations and claimed that there has been a decline in crime against women during the last 13 months in Odisha since the BJP came to power. “The State government has ensured that all the accused persons are arrested immediately and attempts are being made to ensure their conviction,” the minister said.

The BJP State vice-president Sukeshi Oram claimed that the BJP government, under the leadership of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, has arrested all the accused persons immediately, while the victims during the previous BJD regime feared making complaints at police stations.“The confidence of mothers and sisters of the State has increased after seeing the strict approach of the BJP government. During the BJD and Congress regime, action was far from being taken; the government had no interest or time to listen to the complaints,” Oram said. She said, “For BJD and Congress, ‘women’s safety’ is not an issue; rather, they are enacting drama to protect their political interests, existence and to be in the news.”