BHUBANESWAR: The ruling BJD on Tuesday came down heavily on the Opposition political parties, BJP and Congress, for not allowing any discussion in the Assembly on topics involving the interest of common people. Proceedings of the Assembly were disrupted on most of the days during the session by Opposition members mainly over two issues - the murder of minister Naba Kishore Das and the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
Ruling party MLA Arun Sahoo told mediapersons that the BJP members are not allowing BJD to raise the rice issue in the House for the last five days by creating ruckus over irrelevant matters. Alleging that the Centre has allocated only `17,000 crore for procurement of rice in the 2023-24 budget which will affect states like Odisha, Sahoo said it has also discontinued the scheme for distribution of 5 kg rice to beneficiaries during the Covid-19 pandemic. This will affect 3.25 crore people of the state, he said. The former minister also alleged that the Centre which used to procure 17-18 lakh tonne rice from the state, is now reluctant for the procurement.
Responding to the allegations, leader of the Opposition Jaynarayan Mishra said that no one is stopping the state government to provide cheap rice to the beneficiaries at the rate of `1 per kilogram. Stating that the Centre was providing rice as an assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mishra said the BJP has no problem if the state government provides 50 kg of rice to the beneficiaries.