Bhubaneswar, Aug 17 (IANS): Lawyers boycotted courts and students skipped classes in many towns across Orissa Wednesday to support activist Anna Hazare's fight against corruption.
Work at various courts across the state, including the Orissa High Court at Cuttack, 26 km from here, was paralysed as lawyers marched wearing black badges and covering part of their faces with black ribbons.
"Anna's arrest was undemocratic," Lalatendu Samontray, secretary of the Orissa High Court Bar Association, the state's apex association of lawyers, told reporters.
The protest against the central government for arresting Hazare intensified here with people from all walks of life carrying out a number of marches separately.
Demonstrations, rallies and hunger strikes were also reported from other parts of the state. The protesters included freedom fighters, former judges, social activists, journalists and students.
Hazare's arrest in New Delhi Tuesday also echoed in the winter session of the state assembly which began Wednesday with members of opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moving near the speaker's podium and shouting slogans against the central government.
Reports reaching here said students boycotted classes in schools and colleges at various places, organised demonstrations and carried out marches.