Members of the Utkal Bharat on Thursday filed a writ petition in the Odisha High Court seeking its intervention to declare all Bandhs and ‘hartal’ in the State as illegal as such acts, particularly by political parties, are causing hardship to common people while the State is losing extensively in terms of revenue.
Citing the State-wide Hartal called by the ruling BJD on April 26, the petitioners also urged the High Court to initiate criminal proceedings against those BJD leaders who created havoc by forcibly restraining common people from carrying out their normal works on that day.
“Shops and business establishments were forcibly closed by the BJD leaders and activists, who also paralysed road and rail traffic by squatting on the roads and rail tracks,” the petitioners said.
Utkal Bharat treasurer Sk Kamiluddin Ahmed and its general secretary Bishnu Dutta Arya filed the writ making the Chief Secretary and the DGP opposite parties, among others.
The petition alleged that the State suffered a loss of about Rs 1,000 crore due to the Hartal sponsored by the ruling party and urged the High Court to recover the amount from the party.