BHUBANESWAR: The State Government’s eagerness to pass the Orissa Industrial Security Force Bill, 2012, during the current session of the Assembly met a roadblock with Opposition Congress demanding that the Bill be referred to the select committee.
Piloting the Bill in the House on behalf of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raghunath Mohanty said there was an urgent need for raising a specialised force to provide adequate and foolproof security to industries, vital installations and other important establishments.
“The existing State Police force dealing with multiple duties and responsibilities is inadequate to meet the needs of industrial undertakings,” Mohanty said, adding that the police were not adequately trained and armed to deal with security threat to industrial units.
Arguing in favour of a specialised force, the Minister said the State was poised for rapid industrialisation. There is a threat to industrial undertakings of the State, Centre and private sectors.
The Bill proposed to adopt the principle that industrial units will have to pay for deployment of industrial security as and when they seek services of the specialised force, Mohanty said.
Objecting to the manner in which the consideration motion was moved, Congress Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan said the Bill should have been circulated among the members seven days prior to its piloting in the House.
In exceptional cases, the member-in-charge piloting the Bill is required to give it in writing to the Speaker for taking the Bill for consideration. He sought to know from Speaker Pradip Amat if he had received any such writing from the member-in-charge.
“The member-in-charge had given it in writing to me for taking the Bill for consideration and as Speaker I have the right to condone the time limit as prescribed in the rules of business of the Assembly,” Amat said.
Amar Satpathy of the NCP and Anup Sai of the Congress made a strong plea for referring the Bill to the select committee for further examination.
Besides, the steps taken by other states in providing security to their industries and other vital installations should be studied before taking it up for consideration, they said.
Discussion on the Bill remained inconclusive.