Sambalpur: The Sambalpur District Lawyers’ Association has widely welcomed the steps taken by the state government towards establishing permanent benches of the High Court in western and southern Odisha.
In the first phase, announced Friday, the state government has declared Rs 5 crore aid besides a budgetary provision of Rs 100 crore for setting up the benches in the two regions.
This has reflected the commitment of the state government towards establishing permanent benches of the High Court in western and southern Odisha, the lawyers said, adding it has shown that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has kept his word given during his visit to Sambalpur February 2.
It has also cleared the stand of the state government that there is no problem from its side in this regard.
The association president Bijitendriya Pradhan said, “Now, the time has come for the Central government to take adequate steps. Three demands have been put forward to the Chief Minister for taking necessary steps. These are — budgetary provision; writing letter to the High Court; and committee formation. The first demand made therein has been fulfilled and the Chief Minister has shown his willpower for the same by making budgetary provision.”
“It is also expected that he will take necessary steps towards the fulfilment of the two other demands. This is a victory for the people of western Odisha who had extended their valuable support to the movement, despite facing a lot of sufferings for it over the last 5 months,” Pradhan said.
District Collector Samarth Verma, DIG (Northern range) Satyabrata Bhoi and Superintendent of Police, Sanjeev Arora extended their full cooperation in this regard, Pradhan added.
Such a step of the state government has been widely welcomed by the people, from all walks of life. But, it has not been decided so far as to when the movement will be stopped. It will be decided later on, in the next meeting of the general council, Pradhan asserted.
The movement for establishing a permanent bench of the High Court in western Odisha has been going on since last September 5. Protests and agitations have become so normal that a two-day Mahabandh was observed November 29 and 30 with the full support of all people and institutions in the western Odisha.
PNN