Senior Cong leader urges Guv to help end west Odisha impasse

OST Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Sep 3

Senior Congress leader and former Sambalpur MP, Sriballav Panigrah today urged Odisha Governor SC Jamir to intervene and resolve the ongoing impasse in western Odisha, where an ongoing strike by lawyers demanding a permanent bench of High Court in the region has shut down all government offices and other establishments since August 20.

“There is a constitutional crisis in western Odisha as a result of the strike of lawyers demanding a bench of HC. We sought the intervention of the Governor in the matter and urged him to direct the state government to recommend to the Centre opening of a permanent bench of the HC in western Odisha,” said Panigrahi after meeting Jamir here. Panigrahi was accompanied by Congress leader Narasingha Mishra.

Accusing Justice Pal Commission of being hand in glove with the state government for delaying the process, the veteran Congress leader said it should be scrapped immediately as Law minister Veerappa Moily has already assured that the Centre would consider the demand, if the state government makes the recommendation.

Meanwhile, former minister and president of the Kalahandi district unit of BJD, Balabhadra Majhi met chief minister Naveen Patnaik today and demanded that the High Court’s permanent bench should be set up in Kalahandi. Patnaik assured Majhi that he would consider the demand.