Sambalpur: The central working committee of the West Odisha Advocates Association, which is spearheading the agitation for the establishment of an Orissa High Court bench here, has threatened to surrender their bar licences if the government and the high court fail to do it within a stipulated timeframe.

The committee, which met in Sundargarh on Sunday under the presidency of Nimai Naik, a senior advocate and president of the Sundargarh District Bar Association, has decided to intensify its agitation from next month.

The committee will first observe a "threatening week" from February 19 to 24 in various parts of west Odisha. "If the government does not take steps to establish the bench even after this, we will be forced to observe a strike," Naik told The Telegraph over phone from Sundargarh.