HC BENCH BANDH PARALYSES LIFESunday, 25 August 2013 | PNS | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar

Normal life in Balangir town was affected badly on Saturday due to a 12-hour Balangir Bandh called by the Balangir Chamber of Commerce and Industry demanding setting up of a permanent Bench of the Odisha High Court at Balangir.

Shops and other business establishments and banks remained closed and both private and Government buses were off the roads.In a related development, members of te Shramik Eakta Manch led by Lalit Nayak and members of the Balangir District Bar Association led by  Bhavani Satpathy and Siddhartha Mishra staged a Rail Roko at the  Balangir railway station demanding a permanent High Court Bench at Balangir.

The agitators stopped the Sambalpur-Rayagada Express and Passenger trains and the Puri Hatia Express train.The District Bar Association has launched an agitation for a permanent Bench of the Odisha High Court here.

Supporting its demand, the Chamber of Commerce had given the dawn-to-dusk bandh call, to which the residents of the town extended their support.

“We demand a HC permanent Bench here, where it was functioning during the pre-Independence days,” said, president of Balangir Chamber of Commerce and industry Tripurari Panigrahi.