The State Assembly on Tuesday witnessed walkouts by Opposition BJP and Congress members demanding a reply from the Energy Minister to an Adjournment Motion on Ganjam district’s Golanthara bus tragedy. The motion was discussed in their absence.
As the motion given by BJP members was “Golanthara Mendrarajpur: Government turns death god; 10 invaluable lives lost” was taken for discussion, the Speaker called Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera to give a reply. But Congress and BJP members demanded that the Energy Minister give reply as the deaths and injuries occurred due to electrocution.
When Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro said giving a reply to any issue is a collective responsibility of Ministers and any one of them can give a reply, BJP members staged the walkout first and their Congress counterparts moved out of House a few minutes later.
In his reply, Minister Behera expressed grief over the deaths and said the deaths and injuries would not have occurred if the driver had not driven the vehicle in an area not permissible for such high buses. The driver has been arrested and his licence has been cancelled.
Families of deceased would be given Rs 2 lakh from the CMRF and Rs 4 lakh by the Energy Department. He assured the House that adequate steps would be taken to ensure that no such incidents occur in future.
Energy Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra too expressed grief and told the House that steps have been initiated for lifting up low-hanging electric line wires to avert such mishaps in future.