BHUBANESWAR: With the Opposition Congress creating pandemonium over suicide of a farmer in Bargarh district due to crop loss, the Assembly was adjourned for the day on Wednesday without transacting any business.
As their demand for a debate on the farmer’s suicide by suspending Question Hour was not considered by Speaker Niranjan Pujari, slogan-shouting Congress members rushed to the well of the Assembly. The ruckus in the House led to repeated adjournments by the Speaker.
Alleging that Khainu Bagarti, the Bargarh farmer who committed suicide on Tuesday, was a victim of Government callousness, the Congress members shouted slogans as soon as the Assembly assembled for the day. Eight minutes into the Question Hour, the Speaker adjourned the House till 11.30 am and then till 3 pm due to pandemonium.
Raising the issue in Zero Hour, Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra came down heavily on the State Government and held it responsible for the death of Bagarti.
Lashing out at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for ignoring the Opposition demands, Mishra said the Leader of the House has no sympathy for the farmers.
What important business the Assembly has to transact when the farmers of the State are facing crisis of distress sale and a farmer in distress has already committed suicide, he wondered. The role of the Leader of the House is to carry the Opposition for its smooth functioning. However, the Chief Minister preferred to stay away from the Assembly when the Opposition demanded debate on important issues, he added.
Mishra said Bagarti had availed loan from both bank and private persons. He had grown paddy and vegetables. But his crops failed due to lack of irrigation.
The lift irrigation point on which he and other farmers were depending remained non-functional due to erratic power supply. Though Bagarti brought this to the notice of officials of Wesco, the power distribution company, time and again, the utility did nothing. Had the Government taken action in time, Bagarti would not have committed suicide, Mishra said.
“Both the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister visited Bargarh district in 2016 when farmers’ suicides were reported, but nothing special was announced for the farmers. Similar cases have started occurring in 2017 too but the State Government remains a silent spectator,” he said.
The afternoon session of the Assembly remained chaotic as the Congress members continued to shout anti-government slogans. Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Pradeep Purohit told mediapersons that the ruling BJD and the Opposition Congress have entered into a clandestine alliance and conspired to disrupt the House proceedings.
Cooperation Minister Damodar Rout stuck to his earlier stand that farmers never commit suicide for crop failure.
“I have been maintaining this since I was Agriculture Minister. Let there be probe into the Bargarh case, the truth will come out,” Rout said.
