Balangir, Jan. 13: Normal life was thrown out of gear as the dawn-to-dusk bandh call given by the Patnagarh Bar Association paralysed life at Patnagarh today.

The bandh call was given to press for long-pending demands of lawyers — construct a civil court building and establish a permanent court for the additional district judge at Patnagarh.

The response to the bandh call was spontaneous as schools, colleges, banks and all other government and private offices, including the office of the sub-collector and tehsildar, remained closed. Hardly any vehicles plied in the town. Members of the bar association sat on a dharna.

Suni Panda, a homemaker, said she faced a lot of difficulties because of the bandh. “We depend on the daily market for our vegetables and grocery. But the market was closed due to the bandh. We did not get milk as the Omfed van was not allowed to enter the town.”

Deepak Sahu, who works as a teacher in Majhijhal, could only get to school very late. “Only a few buses ply on the route to my school and today they did not operate because of the bandh. I reached school late today,” he said.

Another schoolteacher was upset about the bandh. “It has become a routine affair for people to call bandhs at the drop of a hat. Most of the bandh calls are without any purpose. We had to close school because of security reason,” he said.

Members of the bar association thronged different schools, colleges and government offices this morning to make sure that establishments remained closed. A large number of police personnel were deployed at government offices.

President of the Patnagarh Bar Association Rajesh Purohit said the government had been giving empty assurances. “We have been demanding a court building for the last 20 years. At different times our delegates have met the authorities and have raised the demand. We also demand a permanent court of the additional district judge court. At present, we have a fast track court which might be discontinued this March,” he said.

Purohit said lawyers of Patnagarh had been agitating for the last four days. “We have been boycotting court proceedings and staging dharna for the last four days to press for our demands.”

Balangir District Bar Association and Kantabanjhi Bar Association supported the demands of their Patnagarh counterpart by boycotting court today.