Normal life was paralysed across Nabarangpur district on Wednesday due to a 12-hour bandh called by the District Bar Association in demand for establishing a permanent High Court Bench in the region.
The lawyers blocked the Boriguma-Bhawanipatna NH-26 in front of the Maa Bhandar Gharani Temple. Vehicles remained off the roads; shops and markets, State and Central Government offices, courts and educational and financial institutions remained closed while there was thin attendance in some Government offices.
The bandh was a total success in the district, bar association president N Ahmed said. He alleged that despite availability of infrastructure for functioning of a HC Bench at Jeypore (Koraput), the State Government is apathetic towards the demand of the people of undivided Koraput district who run to Cuttack, which is 750 km away from the remote area in this region, in connection with their cases in the High Court.
The lawyers pointed out that Jeypore is situated within 200 km from the headquarters towns of six districts, Bhawanipatna, Nuapada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Rayagada and Paralakhumundi, besides that of Koraput. Former president of District lawyers’ Association Ashok Mishra said. “We have been demanding a High Court Bench since long. The Government while considering establishment of High Court Benches at Sambalpur and Brahmapur should also consider the genuine demand of this region as geographically Jeypore is situated in the heart of the KBK districts, he said.
Association vice-president Hari Mohan Choudhary claimed that about 80 per cent of the people in the KBK region are living below the poverty line. The illiterate and economically backward people of the undivided Koraput are the worst sufferers in the matter of getting justice as they cannot afford the expenses for going to far-off Cuttack to pursue their cases in the High Court. “A delegation would go to Cuttack and place our claim before the Chief Justice of the High Court, he added.