Sambalpur: Members of the bar association here warned the state government of intensifying their agitation if it failed to settle the issue of establishment of an Orissa High Court bench in west Odisha with the Centre.

The Sambalpur Bar Association members were reviewing the ongoing agitation. Its president Atanu Ghosh told The Telegraph after the meeting: "We have tolerated enough. There is no option before the lawyers of west Odisha but to intensify the agitation in a phased manner."

"The Union law minister had written to the state to clarify its position on the issue in 2013. The government, however, has been sitting on the issue," he said.

He said lawyers of the region had been agitating for a bench for the past 40 years. "We also met the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court and staged a dharna before it, but in vain," Ghosh said.

He said a central working committee of all bar associations in west Odisha met on January 21 in Sundargarh and decided to intensify their protests. They plan to observe a week-long agitation from February 19 to 24 in the region when lawyers will stop functioning of offices of both state and central governments, courts and banking sector, he said.

The committee has also decided to boycott all legal activities in the state.

"If that does not solve the issue, there will be no option but to surrender the bar licences," said committee president Nimai Naik, a senior advocate and also president of the Sundargarh District Bar Association.