Bhubaneswar : Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday assured the Central Action Committee (CAC) he would write a “strong letter” to the Centre for establishment of a permanent bench of the Orissa High Court at Sambalpur.
The assurance came when a 15-member CAC delegation called on the Chief Minister to reiterate the demand they have been raising since 2014.
The delegation included Sambalpur MLA Raseswari Panigrahi and members of the bar association.
Convener of the Committee, Ashok Das, later said that, “The CM assured us that he would write another strong letter to the Centre but we demand that a delegation representing the state government should visit Delhi and talk to the Centre”.
Committee spokesperson Surenswara Mishra said that MPs from the state should make a concerted effort to ensure that a Bill on establishment on permanent bench should be passed in Parliament in the ongoing Monsoon session.
Reacting to the progress, Bolangir District Bar Association president Ashok Mohanty said the Centre was deliberately dragging its feet arguing that applications by the state government were being filed in the “wrong format”.
Mohanty said when Rajya Sabha MP Prasanna Acharya raised the issue, the Union minister of state for Law, PP Choudhury, said that the state had presented the demands in a “wrong format”.
Mohanty said, “we believe the state government has applied in the correct format. Rather it is the Centre which is adopting delaying tactics to avoid setting up the bench”.