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Lawyers lay siege to Assembly road

— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

Stand-off: Lawyers demonstrating in front of the Assembly in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

BHUBANESWAR: Lawyers from 10 western Orissa districts laid a siege to Mahatma Gandhi Marg, the main road leading to State Assembly, on Wednesday demanding establishment of permanent bench of Orissa High Court in their region.

Clad in black robe and white collar, about 2000 agitated lawyers tried to enter the Assembly premises as the budget session began n the morning.

Many members of All Western Orissa Bar Associations (AWOBA) managed to break the first cordon but they were stopped before the second barricade. Lawyers were in the capital city to air their anger against continuously passive reaction of Orissa government to their demand.

A 16-member core committee of AWOBA was invited the to meet Mr. Patnaik in his chamber. However, it did not satisfy the lawyers waiting outside the Assembly premise.

The member again met Home Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra, who reportedly assured the committee that he would submit a report on setting up of a permanent HC bench in western Orissa within seven days.

“We have postponed our agitation for a week now in view of the assurance. If the state government fails to sanction a permanent bench this time, it will be held responsible for any law and order situation arising out of brewing resentments among lawyers,” Sisir Ballav Mishra, President of Core Committee, said.

BERHAMPUR: A dawn-to-dusk bandh was observed in Ganjam district on Wednesday at the call of the Gnajam Bar Association and other bar associations of the district.

This bandh call was in demand of establishment of a High Court bench in Berhampur for the benefit of south Orissa. The lawyers of Ganjam bar association and other bar associations of the district have been on strike for more than two months for this demand. The day-to-day life was hampered due to this bandh. Passenger traffic through roads remained at a standstill as no passenger bus travelled in the district till afternoon. Rail traffic was disrupted for a few hours in the morning due to demonstration by lawyers at the Berhampur railway station. But the trains started running after 8 am.

Since early morning the lawyers of the Ganjam bar association moved around the city in a rally.

The BJP activists and Congress activists also took out separate rallies in the city in support of the demand for court bench and the bandh call. Most of the government offices and banks had to be closed down due to picketing of lawyers. They also burnt tyres on NH 5 and NH 217 at many places to block the traffic. Authorities of all schools and colleges of the city had closed down their institutions for the day as precautionary measure. Most of the business establishments remained closed.

Ten platoons of armed police had been deployed in the city as precautionary measure during the bandh. No untoward incidents were reported. Bandh was also peaceful in other parts of Ganjam district with active participation of local bar associations, said Mohan Singari, secretary of the Ganjam bar association. Me Singari said all bar associations had decided to continue with their cease-work agitation till the State Government came up with resolution to establish permanent benches of the High Court in Berhampur and western Orissa. The action committee of lawyers formed in Ganjam district would meet at Bhanjanagar on February 15 to chalk out their future course of action to get their demand fulfilled.

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