BHUBANESWAR: Facing Opposition fire over Mamita Meher’s murder in the Assembly, the ruling BJD on Thursday raised the issue of steep hike in the price of cooking gas to counter the BJP and Congress.
BJD MLAs staged a dharna in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the Assembly premises after the House was adjourned soon after it assembled for the day. Government chief whip Pramila Mallik alleged that the Centre has ignored the repeated demands made by the BJD for reducing the price of cooking gas.
“The BJD had submitted a memorandum to the President of India and repeatedly reminded the Centre of the demand to lower LPG price,” she added. Criticising the Opposition political parties for playing politics by skirting the main issues, BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb said that BJD always raised issues which affected the common people.
The Opposition wants to discuss only one issue - the Mamita Meher murder case - and has been disrupting the proceedings of the House for the last two days over it. Describing this as a well planned strategy of the Opposition, Deb said that there are other issues affecting people like the demand for a hike in the paddy MSP, low coverage of banks and mobile and internet connectivity in the State and rise in the price of cooking gas. But the Opposition has no concern for these issues affecting the common people, he added.