Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 15: Lewis Road in the city turned unreachable and unsafe for commuters for over three hours Tuesday as lawyers practising at the district court blocked the road and resorted to arson on the fifth day of their strike against the abolition of Orissa Administrative Tribunal (OAT). Hundreds of litigants were left in a limbo and commuters were forced to use alternative routes.
The agitating lawyers burnt tyres and billboards on a 100-metre stretch of Lewis Road in front of the district court and stopped passage of traffic through the road. Panicked parents of the students of BJB College opposite the court rushed to the spot to receive them, while commuters had to take longer routes to reach their destinations.
Police remained mute spectator all this while. Instead of getting the road cleared, the cops stood on a side of the blocked road and stationed two constables on the other end to divert the traffic. Badagada inspector Suvendhu Sinha, who was on the spot, told
Orissa POST: “I am just doing what I have been asked to do by my seniors.” Sub-division IV ACP Akshaya Kumar Mishra said: “No inconvenience is being caused to commuters. There are alternative routes. The lawyers are civilised people.”
The protesting lawyers, who sat on the roads, however, didn’t stop ambulances. Chittaranjan Das, secretary of the Bhubaneswar Bar Association (BBA), said the lawyers used peaceful means of protest to get their voices heard, but the government remained indifferent. “Law minister Arun Sahoo told us he would take up the issue, but he never got back to us. We tried to speak to the Chief Minister, too, but he didn’t respond. How else do we protest?” Das asked.
BBA president Ashok Kumar Patra said the lawyers would continue their strike till their demands are met and that they would block the road again Wednesday. The lawyers also submitted a memorandum to Governor SC Jamir Tuesday, urging his intervention to ensure return of OAT.
Premananda Behera, a litigant who waited on the court premises, said, “Today my brother was supposed to get bail. But now, I don’t know for how long he would have to stay behind bars with the lawyers still not getting back to work.”