MEERUT, Sept. 20 -- Scores of advocates, traders, political leaders and social organisations took to the streets in Meerut on Saturday over the long-standing demand for a high court bench in western Uttar Pradesh.

Responding to the call of the Central Struggle Committee, which has vowed to transform the movement into a mass agitation, demonstrators staged a march from the Meerut Bar Association office to Begumpul, where they raised slogans for nearly two hours and blocked the intersection by forming a human chain.

MLC Dharmendra Bhardwaj and mayor Harikant Ahluwalia also joined the protest at the last moment, assuring participants that the party supports the demand.

In all 22 districts of western UP, advocates boycotted judicial work a...