With rape and crime against women becoming a daily occurrence, the Opposition Congress on Thursday stalled the proceedings in the Assembly in the pre-lunch session demanding a statement from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the gangrape of a Dalit girl in Patkura area on Wednesday.
As soon as the House assembled for the day, Congress members stormed into well accusing the State Government of failing to control rising crime against women.
Furious over repeated rape incidents and rise in crime against women, the Congress MLAs trooped into the well as soon as the House assembled for the day and attempted to climb on the Speakers podium.
Besides the alleged gangrape case in Patkura area, the slogan shouting Opposition members also raised the issue of sexual harassment of girls at a school in Balasore district.
Unable to bring normalcy, Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat adjourned the House first till 12.45 am and later till 3 pm.
The House could run for only six minutes in the pre-lunch session. Normalcy, however, returned in the afternoon session.
‘’We have been demanding a statement from the Chief Minister over the series of crimes against women but Naveen Patnaik, who is also the home minister, has been avoiding making any statement in the House,” Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh told mediapersons.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kalpataru Das said the Opposition can again raise the issue during demand discussion of the home department.
The gangrape at Patkura area of Kendrapara district came to the fore a day after the House expressed concern over a series of such incidents including the alleged gangrape of a minor girl at Malkangiri and gangrape and burning of a 17-year-old Dalit girl at Gandia in Dhenkanal district.
The Opposition members also raised the issue relating to the sexual harassment of school girls in Balasore.
Today was third consecutive day when Opposition raised crime against women issue in the State Assembly.
Earlier, the House was stalled for two days on March 15 and 16 over alleged dowry torture allegations against former minister Raghunath Mohanty and his family members.