Normal Life Hit In Odisha’s Padampur During Bandh Over District Status Amid HC Restraining Order

Padampur: Normal life was disrupted at Padampur in Odisha’s Bargarh on Tuesday due to a dawn-to-dusk shutdown over demand for district status.

The 12-hour bandh, called by Zilla Gathan Kriyanusthan Committee, affected normal life and activities in different sectors in the region. While shops, business establishments, offices, banks and educational institutions remained closed, vehicular movement was also disrupted. The protestors have kept emergency and essential services out of the purview of the bandh.

A leader of the Kriyanusthan committee said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had promised to make Padampur a separate district by December 2023. However, the promise made before the Padampur by-election is yet to be fulfilled and the people of the area are feeling cheated, he said.

Last month, the Orissa High Court restrained the state government from forming any new district without its permission and extended the order by another three weeks on January 8.

The two-judge bench of acting Chief Justice BR Sarangi and Justice M S Raman extended the restriction after additional government advocate D K Mohanty sought time to file a counter affidavit in compliance with the interim order issued on December 21, 2023, and provide information with regard to re-organisation of district.

While hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), the court had earlier rapped that the state government for creating new districts without any guidelines and principles. It observed that with regard to the power of formation of new districts, except the report of the Justice Raj Kishore Das Committee (district reorganization committee), 1975 and the Cabinet Sub-Committee Report of 1991, nothing is made available or placed on record as to how to re-organise a district.

The HC, however, allowed the government to continue the process of reorganisation if it wants.

The order was seen as a setback to the government’s move to carve a new district of Padampur from Bargarh. In February, 2023, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced that Padampur will get district status within a year. Last month, the government had set the ball rolling with an official team headed by revenue divisional commissioner of northern division scouting few sites for construction of district headquarters.

While order stopped the government from declaring Padampur as a separate district, Naveen on December 29, 2023, approved the proposal for the creation of a new post of ADM Padampur in Bargarh district and also appointed Chavan Kunal Motiram, an IAS officer of 2020 batch, to the post.

Apart from Padampur, people of Kantabanji, Titilagarh, Athagarh, Dharmagarh and some other places have also been demanding separate districts. The government had recently informed the Assembly that demands for 25 new districts have been received from different regions of the state.