A delegation of Ganjam Bar Association led by convenor of South Odisha Action Committee and BeMC Corporator Sanjeet Panigrahi submitted a memorandum to Union Minister for HRD and Skill Development Dharmendra Pradhan during his one-day visit to Brahmapur here on Sunday, demanding establishment of a permanent Bench of the Orissa High Court at Brahmapur.
The three decades long agitation with the demand for the permanent HC Bench at Brahmapur since 1990 has so far gone unheeded, the delegation members told Pradhan.
Notably, the State Government has already sent a letter to the Centre requesting to establish a permanent Bench of the Orissa High Court, one each at Brahmapur and Sambalpur, which however has yielded no result. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in 2007 had requested the Centre to consider the proposal. The State Government again in 2013 had reiterated the demand in its letter addressed to the then Union Law Minister, but in vain.
In response to the Chief Minister's letter, the then Union Law Minister had asked the State Government to provide required infrastructure for establishment of HC Bench at both the places which was also apprised to the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court. Keeping the long cherished demand and the public perceptions in mind, Action Committee convenor Sanjit Panigrahi requested Minister Pradhan to impress upon the Government to consider the issue favorably.