Bhubaneswar, May 10: Litigants coming to lower courts in the capital and commuters taking the Bhubaneswar-Puri Road (National Highway-203) were a harried lot today as the city’s lawyers blocked the traffic lifeline for more than five hours.

This was the second time in the last 15 days that the advocates of several Bhubaneswar courts resorted to road blockade protesting against the proposed shifting of the newly formed Chandrasekharpur branch of the sub-registrar office from the court premises to Chandrasekharpur.

They have decided to continue their ceasework till Monday. A protester said they would consider their future course of action if the government did not pay any attention to their demands by Monday.

As the lawyers blocked the road by burning tyres at different places on the highway, daily commuters, especially vehicle drivers, were in for all kinds of trouble.

“I had boarded a bus to Puri from Kalpana Square bus stand when a group of people rushed towards the bus and started ransacking it. They dragged some of us out of the bus before some policemen came and tried to pacify them. Later, the driver turned the bus back towards the city fearing that the mob would cause further damage,” said Soubhagya Sethi, a trader from Puri.

The agitating advocates occupied the stretch of road from Kalpana Square to Pantha Nivas. They burnt tyres to obstruct vehicular movement on this stretch. Many motorists, who were not obeying them, also had to face a lot of trouble.

Though the lawyers had blocked the road for around five hours, there were only a handful of policemen who remained mute spectators to their activities. Commuters had to face a lot of problems, as the policemen were not diverting the vehicles from different roads leading to this stretch. Commuters, who were not aware of the protest that was taking place in this area, were harassed and sent back by the advocates who took law in their hands.

“I had to go to Vani Vihar. I normally get down at Kalpana Square and take an autorickshaw. But today, I had to get down before Pantha Nivas and had to walk to Rajmahal to take an autorickshaw,” said Nitu Pradhan, a daily commuter who resides at Pipili.

Litigants who came to the court also had to suffer a lot.

“I had come to the court for a case. But, it was only after coming here that I got to know about the strike. To add to my woes, I did not even get a bus to my house and had to walk to Rabi Talkies Square from where I took an autorickshaw to my residence at Dhauli,” said Sagar Nath, a litigant.

The lawyers had been protesting since April 24 against the shifting of the Chandrasekharpur branch of the sub-registrar office to that place. This new branch has been created by bifurcating the Bhubaneswar sub-registrar’s office, which works from the Bhubaneswar court complex. The lawyers, who had started ceasework on May 4, said they were protesting in a peaceful and democratic manner. “As the government did not take any steps to resolve the matter or even attempted a discussion with us, a general body meeting of the bar association was held today. At the meeting, it was decided that we will stage a roadblock to intensify our protest,” said S. Subuddhi, president of Bhubaneswar Bar Association.

“We want the government to take back their decision of shifting the sub-registrar’s office to Chandrasekharpur. The government had earlier decided to shift the Khandagiri sub-registrar’s office from here, but could not do so after we staged a series of protests,” said Gyanranjan Mohanty, secretary of All Odisha Lawyers’ Association.

State revenue minister S.N. Patro, however, said the Bhubaneswar sub-registrar’s office had been handling around 50,000 registrations every year. “So, it was not possible for a sub-registrar to go through around 200 files relating to land registrations everyday. The new sub-register office was created only for better functioning of the office. It was decided to shift the office to Chandrasekharpur as it would serve the people of the locality better,” said Patro.

At present, three offices — that of the Khurda district registrar, the Bhubaneswar sub-registrar and the Khandagiri sub-registrar — are operating from the Bhubaneswar court premises. The government has decided to set up another sub-registrar’s office near Chandrasekharpur to handle some workload of the Bhubaneswar sub-registrar’s jurisdiction.