Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Sunday demanded publication of the Justice CR Pal Commission report, which scrutinised matters relating to establishment of high court benches in the western and southern parts of the state and which was submitted to the state government four years back.
The OPCC also accused the state government and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of undertaking ‘politics of writing letters’ and not focusing on creating a bench of Odisha High Court in western Odisha.
Addressing the media at the Congress Bhavan here, OPCC spokesperson Satya Nayak said the report was submitted in 2014 but it was yet to be made public.
“The state government received the report in 2014. Public money of Rs 1.52 crore was spent on the report. However, the state government is yet to make it public. The people of the state have the right to know the specifics on which the taxpayers’ money was spent. We demand that the report be made public,” Nayak said.
Nayak also said that the incumbent Chief Minister wrote three similar letters to three different Union law ministers but failed to gain anything substantive in facilitating a HC bench in western Odisha.
“The CM has written three different letters with similar content to three different Union ministers – Kapil Sibal (2013), Sadananda Gowda (2015) and Ravi Shankar Prasad (2018). He should shun the practice of letter writing politics and stop befooling people,” Nayak said.
Nayak also cited Ravi Shankar Prasad’s reply letter September 2018 where he said that the Orissa High Court Chief Justice had said in 2015 that they were awaiting release of the Justice CR Pal Commission Report for further steps on establishment of a HC bench in western Odisha. As per the norms, consent of the Orissa HC Chief Justice is needed for the establishment of the bench which is said to be pending on account of non-release of the CR Pal Commission report by the state government.
