A meeting of the Umarkote Bar Association was held here on Wednesday in which its members passed a resolution demanding declaration of Umarkote as a sub-division at the earliest.
The lawyers alleged that even if a gazette notification in this regard has been published on December 27, 2015, the Government is showing lackadaisical attitude to declare Umarkote as a sub-division. They pointed out that Umarkote is the second largest town and business hub of Nabarangpur district and fulfils all the criteria for a sub-division.
Bar Association president Prasant Kumar Sahu said that as there is no Sub-Collector office here, the litigants have to travel a long distance to Nabarangpur, thedistrict headquarters, to file their cases relating to land disputes.
He also said that even if the Nabarangpur Sub-Collector conducts a camp court here for a day in every month for hearing the cases but due to the irregular conduct of the camp court, the litigants face problems.
Particularly, people from the SC and ST communities are deprived of their rightful ownership of land.
Although specific dates for hearing are fixed by the Sub-Collector, most of the time hearings are not held, forcing people to wait for long time, Sahu said.
This results in the cases lingering for years, at times even without trial. Thus, it is high time Umarkote was declared as a sub-division, he further stated.
The association threatened that if the demand is not met, they would resort to a mass agitation. Among others, senior lawyers Srinibas Patnaik, Santunu Bahinipati, Tapan Debnath, Santosh Sahu and Monohar Mohanty were present.