BHUBANESWAR: With just a day left, the brief monsoon session of the State Assembly has turned out to be a complete washout amid persistent disruptions in defiance of repeated appeals from the Speaker of the House. The nine days session with eight working days was the least productive. Wednesday witnessed one of the most dramatic events with members of the Opposition BJP and Congress gheraoing Speaker S N Patro in his office chamber demanding discussion on their notice on the mining scam.
As soon as the House assembled for the day, members of both Congress and BJP created pandemonium over the alleged mining scam in the State and demanded the Speaker to allow a discussion on the adjournment motion notice by suspending Question Hour to discuss the issue. Unable to transact business, the Speaker adjourned the House till 11.30 am. When the House was about to reassemble at 11.30 am, MLAs from both the Opposition parties gheraoed Patro in his chamber. This forced the Deputy Speaker Rajanikant Singh to adjourn the House for the second time till 4 pm.
Responding to media queries, the Speaker said, “Members of the Opposition led by senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra came to my chamber for a discussion. Some members of the treasury benches were also present. I had cited the reason for non-acceptance of the adjournment motion notice. I told them that they could raise this issue during Zero Hour.”However, accusing the government of its involvement in the mining scam, Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja said, “We want a discussion on the mining issue as a majority of auctioned mines are still not fully functional resulting in acute scarcity of iron ore.”He said the government is not taking action against the lessees who won bids by quoting higher premiums but failed to meet the lease conditions.
As a result of which, more than `10,000 crore penalty has been raised through demand notice against the defaulters. Justifying their action, Saluja said the Opposition had no other option but to protest. BJP Chief Whip Mohan Majhi who hails from the mineral-rich Keonjhar district said the BJD government is in nexus with mine owners. “Every time we want a discussion on mining scam, the State government is trying to escape,” he added. Condemning the Opposition action, BJD MLA Pratap Keshari Deb accused it of shifting goal posts. “When a playing team sees that its tactics are not working, they immediately change their strategy by shifting their goal post. The Opposition parties are doing the same,” he added.