BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Opposition BJP continued to stall the proceedings of the Assembly over the suspension of two of its MLAs, the supplementary budget of School and Mass Education and Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water departments was passed amid pandemonium.
The party stuck to its demand for revoking the suspension of two of its MLAs and to expunge remarks against the leader of Opposition Jayanarayan Mishra. The supplementary expenditure of all other departments was passed through guillotine amid the Congress’ boycott and BJP members protesting in the well of the House.
Prior to the passing of the supplementary budget, speaker Pramila Mallik announced that the mental disorder remarks of BJD MLA Arun Sahoo against the leader of the Opposition were expunged from the House proceedings. However, normalcy could not be restored in the Assembly even after repeated adjournments and an all-party meeting where the BJP made three demands which included expunging the remark made by Sahoo against Mishra, apology from Sahoo and lifting the suspension of the Opposition chief whip Mohan Majhi and Mukesh Mahaling.
Since the other two demands of the BJP were not met, members of the party continued their protest in the well as a result of which the House could not transact any business till 6 p.m. Accusing the speaker of playing to the tune of ruling BJD, Mishra said the former should stay above party lines and act according to the rules of the Assembly. “When there is disorder in the house, it was the duty of the speaker to bring normalcy by convening an all-party meeting which she did not”, he said.
Taking exception to the action of the speaker, Congress MLA Narasingha Mishra said there are many important issues for discussion today but the speaker followed the practice of what the BJP is doing in the Parliament. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the House functions smoothly.
“It seems the government is on the back foot for whatever happened in the past. The ruling party is abusing the Opposition by calling someone mentally deranged which is uncalled for”, he said.