Judicial work in Nabarangpur district has been hit for the last 12 days with the lawyers resorting to indefinite relay strike in front of the Sub-Collector, Office, demanding district and sessions judge court for the district.
After Nabarangpur was carved out as a new district in 1992, the state government has made repeated commitments to sanction a district and sessions court for the district.
Despite the fact that in Feb 2010 during the visit of the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, and law minister, Bikram Araku, announced in a public meeting here for the establishment of district judge court at Nabarangpur soon. Now the assurance seems to be unfilled.
But nothing has been done so far despite a series of announcements and commitments. Land was not a constraint for building the infrastructure. The additional district court here is in possession of surplus land for the establishment of a district and sessions court, said Bar association president, Mr.Uma Sankar Tripathy. We will be forced to resort to ceasework and other means of agitation if the government does not make any announcement in this regard soon.
However, 18 years on, the repeated pleas with the Government to establish a District Judge Court here has fallen on deaf ears and the court in functioning in Koraput due to which the people and the litigants are suffering from great deal of hardship and their grievances have not been redressed. As per the government notification, six new judgeships were supposed to be created in the state. But the judgeship in Nabarangpur was excluded from the list. The judicial courts here are now under the administrative jurisdiction of Koraput district and sessions court.
“Even after 12 days of strike, none from the Law Department or the State Government has come forward to discuss our problems,” Secretary, District Bar association, Raghunath Padhy, adding, we are being forced to intensify our strike. Several organizations extended their support. Nabarangpur MLA, Monahor Randhari, Former MP, Parshuram Majhi, Zilla parisad, vice chairperson, Manjula Majhi, came to the demo place and discussed with the lawyers and said that the demand is a genuine one.
In the meanwhile on Tuesday, a team of the bar association, headed by presient, Umatripathy, secretary, Raghunath Padhy, Narasingha Tripathy, bar council member, Bishnu Patro, rushed to Cuttack, to apprise the matter before the Chief justice, high court, and law department.
