Stormy start to Winter session in Odisha Assembly

Speaker Surya Narayan Patro had to adjourn the Assembly repeatedly as a determined Opposition did not allow him to run the House smoothly.
BJP and Congress MLAs stage protest in the well of House on first day of Assembly in Bhubaneswar. (Photo | EPS, Biswanath
BJP and Congress MLAs stage protest in the well of House on first day of Assembly in Bhubaneswar. (Photo | EPS, Biswanath

BHUBANESWAR: The winter session of Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA) started on a stormy note on Wednesday with Opposition BJP and Congress targeting the state government on law and order issue.

Speaker Surya Narayan Patro had to adjourn the Assembly repeatedly as a determined Opposition did not allow him to run the House smoothly.

Though separate adjournment notices by BJP and Congress on deteriorating law and order and increasing atrocities on women was received by the Speaker for discussion, the Opposition members demanded that the issue be discussed by suspending the question hour immediately after the obituary reference on three former members and a jawan of Odisha Armed Police Force.

As the Speaker allowed the question hour to run and Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Arun Sahu rose to answer a question, BJP and Congress MLAs rushed to the well of the House and began raising slogans against the Government. Amid pandemonium, the Speaker adjourned the House till 3 pm.

As the House reassembled, the Opposition members remained adamant on their demand and continued to stall the House proceedings. The Speaker convened an all-party meeting to find a solution but failed.

Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari tabled the Supplementary Budget for 2019-20 fiscal amid sloganeering by Opposition. The Speaker had to adjourn the Assembly for the day.

Terming the adjournment as unfortunate, Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik said “We wanted discussion on the rising cases of harassment against women and deteriorating law and order situation in the State, but the Speaker declined our proposal and adjourned the proceedings.”

Justifying his demand, Naik cited the rules under which discussion on an important issue like the mysterious murder of lady PEO Smitarani Biswal could have been taken up for discussion.

Congress MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is always talking about ‘Maa ku Saman’ (dignity to women) but incidents like the death of the Lady PEO shows how insensitive is the BJD Government to women atrocities. The Chief Minister has miserably failed in keeping his promise.

Disapproving the action of Opposition members, senior BJD MLA Amar Prasad Satpathy said there was no urgency to take up the opposition adjournment motion by suspending the question hours.

“Assembly follows rules of business. Any deviation will unnecessarily kill the valuable time of the House which has many important businesses to transact. Question hour provides an opportunity to the members to raise important issues. The Opposition sponsored motion could have been take up at an appropriate time as per laid out norms,” Satpathy said.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com