Buoyed by lawyers’ stir, five cities lay claim to Chhattisgarh HC

Today’s bandh in all five cities was also called to ensure that their demands are not ignored at tomorrow’s all-party meeting.

Raipur, Bilaspur and Bastar are the three divisional headquarters of the 16 Madhya Pradesh districts which will form part of the new state and politicians from each region want that at least some state level institutions — if not the state capital itself — should be located in their area.

During the initial euphoria after the passage of the States Reorganisation Bill for Chhattisgarh, politicians from Bilaspur had indicated their willingness to concede the state capital to Raipur. But they wanted the high court to be located in their city as part of the bargain. But the Raipur lawyers’ 15-day-long agitation for the high court has now altered the situation. “It’s logical that the state capital and the high court should be located in one city,” says Kishore Bhaduri, general secretary of the Raipur Bar Association. He relies on the Justice Jaswant Singh Committee’s earlier recommendation in favour of a bench of the MP High Court being set up in Raipur.

Yesterday, Raipur lawyers gheraoed Union Minister of State Ramesh Bais and forced him to concede that he would support the demand for the high court to be located in the state capital. Madhya Pradesh Minister Dhanendra Sahu — also from Raipur — has endorsed the BJP leader’s stand.

This led to strong reactions from other parts of Chhattisgarh. Bilaspur lawyers have launched a counter-agitation and are now pressing their politicians to fight for their city to be the state capital as well. “The city is right in the middle of the state and people from all parts,” argues Madhya Pradesh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Prasad Shukla, espousing Bilaspur’s case.

Meanwhile, lawyers in Raigarh and Durg have launched separate agitations to ensure that at least a division bench of the high court be set up in their areas. The state’s Jail Minister and tribal leader Mahendra Karma, on the other hand, wants at least a division bench of the new high court to be in yet another place — Jagdalpur town of Bastar division.

However, few Chhattisgarh Congress leaders aspiring to be the new state’s first chief minister wish to be involved in the controversy. “These questions will be sorted out by the people of Chhattisgarh without much problem,” says AICC spokesman Ajit Jogi. For a change, BJP veteran from Chhattisgarh, Lakhi Ram Agarwal, agrees with him.