Odisha to have legal aid centres in panchayats

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced that his government will take steps to set up centres in every panchayat of the state from next year to provide free legal aid to the poor.
These centres would be named as 'Madhu Babu Legal Aid Centre', the Chief Minister said.
Speaking at a function of the ruling BJD's legal front here, Patnaik also announced that the state would have one more Law University soon and steps would be taken to improve the conditions of all law colleges in the state.
Reiterating his commitment to have the Law Commission of Odisha, Patnaik announced the Lawyers' Corpus Fund would be hiked to Rs three crore from the present Rs one crore.

The function was attended among others by the state law minister Arun Sahu and a large number of lawyers from across the state.
Earlier in the day, several BJP activists were taken into police custody for protesting the visit of Patnaik to the city at its entry point at Khan Nagar under Madhupatna police station limits.
Demanding the arrest of city BJD legislator Debashis Samantray for his alleged role in the attack on BJP workers during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Paradip earlier this month, the BJP workers were also protesting deteriorating law and order situation of the state and the city in particular.