Strong action against lawyers over misbehaving collector :IAS officers of Odisha demand

Strong action against lawyers over misbehaving collector :IAS officers of Odisha demand 26/04/2011

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA, BUREAU CHIEF,THESE DAYS,ODISHA

ODISHA NEWS/BHUBANESWAR

IAS officers delegation today meets Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and demanding strong action against the culprits who misbehaved with and manhandled the Sambalpur Collector, Mrinalini Darswal, and assaulted the sub-registrar. The lawyers enforced a dawn-to-dusk bandh in the town, demanding transfer of the Collector and the district sub-registrar.

The IAS officers met the Chief Minister in his Secretariat office chamber under the leadership of IAS Officers Association president Priyabrat Patnaik and secretary Madhusudan Padhi and handed him a memorandum expressing solidarity with the action of the Collector and demanding strong legal action against the errant lawyers.

Padhi told mediapersons that they appreciate the action of the Collector in supporting the sub-registrar who was assaulted by the lawyers in his office. The Chief Minister assured the bureaucrats that the law would take its own course.

On the other hand, the 12-hour bandh called by the lawyers in Sambalpur passed off peacefully on Wednesday. The bandh was in response to Tuesday’s vast rally of the Government employees demanding exemplary action against the errant advocates “who misbehaved with the Collector and manhandled the sub-registrar”.

All Government offices, banks and commercial establishments in the town remained closed for the whole day. But in view of the HSC examination and other examinations in colleges, the educational institutions were spared from the bandh. However, emergency services like medicals and similar institutions remained open in the interest of the people. Railway service was also functioning normally.

Keeping in view the prevailing tension, police had deployed 25 platoons of forces and 80 senior officers were on duty in all sensitive places including the office of the Collector, RDC, Sub-Collector and all other important Government offices.