Hundreds of members of Orissa Loka Dal on Monday staging demonstration against allegedly recruiting non-Oriyas in large numbers in East Coast Railway.

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Bhubaneswar : Hundreds of members of Orissa Loka Dal led by State president Dipti Ranjan Mohanty on Monday gheraoed the Headquarters' of East Coast Railway here at Rail Vihar in Chandrasekharpur area.

The party president Mohanty lambasted the railways in general and East Coast Railways in particular for allegedly overlooking claims of unemployed Oriya youth and recruiting non-Oriyas in large numbers.

The recruitment smacks of nepotism and candidates mostly from Bihar are cornering the Class III and Class IV jobs, Mohanty alleged.

"Railways had constantly neglected Orissa and top officials were using their discretionary quota to favor non-Oriya candidates", he said.

Party members joined in the protests and hurled accusations ranging from meager budgetary allocation, no new railway lines to faulty and biased recruitment in front of the Railway office . "Our party has decided to further intensify agitation over the issue and will stop rail communication if the Union Railway Ministry did not consider the interest of Oriyas," he added. When contacted authorities of the East Coast Rly here they denied charges of favoritism in recruitment and said railways do not discriminate nor does it act on a regional or State basis.