Bhubaneswar: Several present and former ministers and legislators in Orissa face the risk of landing behind the bars.

They are among the thousands of people in the state who have either ignored court summons - some for as long as seven years - or have warrants issued against them but have not been picked up by the police. Now, the Orissa High Court has ruled that it will brook no further delay in the matter.

"We are executing the order of the court at top speed," the state's Home Secretary, T. K. Mishra, said.

The court issued the order on May 18. Following this, "non-billable arrest warrants would be issued against more then 15,000 people all over the state," G. B. Dash, Inspector General of Police (Crime), told India Abroad News Service. "We have already affected 4,066 arrests by June 30, and the others would be arrested soon," he said.

No politician has, so far, been arrested - ostensibly because the jails in the state are not ready for these 'VIP' prisoners.

"After executing the order partly we have found that the jails are getting over-populated and we do not have place to keep these VIPs," a Superintendent of Police said. "This is the reason why some MLAs (members of legislative Assemblies) and ministers against whom non-bailable warrants have been issued have not been arrested. But we hope to sort out these difficulties and all these people would be behind bars very soon," he said.

Police, however, will not name the ministers. "We can only say that the list includes a large number of politicians of various political parties," a senior police official said.

Adds an official of the home department: "About two ministers of the present government and two of the last government figure in the list."

Not surprisingly, many prominent leaders of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have sought the help of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to avoid arrest. Some ministers and sitting legislators have sought the intervention of the Speaker of the Orissa Assembly.

"The Assembly session is going on and if we are arrested during this period, it will prevent us from performing our duty," Pradip Moharathy, a BJD MLA, against whom a non-bailable warrant is pending, said in the Assembly a few days ago.

The administration faces another difficulty in executing the order when it comes to arresting a minister or a legislator, a district magistrate said. "We have to first intimate the Speaker of the Assembly and seek his permission for executing the warrant," he said. And, that's not the easiest of jobs.