leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh and his Congress colleagues on Monday withdrew their two-day long dharana in the well of the House with the State Government conceding to their demand for a debate on Tikiri school teacher Itishree Pradhan’s murder.
The stalemate ended following Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat’s ruling that the Government had agreed to the demand of the Opposition and that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik would reply on Tuesday to the debate on the ghastly killing of the woman teacher in Rayagada district.
leader of the Opposition Singh and his party colleagues were on a dharana inside the well of the House since Saturday last, protesting against the abrupt adjournment of the House and demanding a reply by the Chief Minister to their adjournment motion on the issue.
The House could not transact much business and was repeatedly adjourned on the issue on Saturday. The opposition members, in support of their demand, held the dharana in the well and showed banner holding the Chief Minister and the School and Mass Education Minister responsible for the barbaric killing of the lady teacher.
Itishree was set afire with sprinkling of kerosene on her body on October 27 night, while she was sleeping at her hostel room by an unknown miscreant as she refused to withdraw her FIR against School Inspector Netrananda Dandsena, the prime accused in her murder.
Congress members were seen shouting slogans in support of their demand for a debate on the issue by displaying long banners when the leader of the Opposition was continuing his dharana in the well. They kept shouting slogans 'Itishree murderer Naveen Patnaik hai hai', and “CM must reply the debate on Itishree murder”.
As the chaos ruled the House and repeated appeal to the leader of Opposition and the Congress members to go to their seats and cooperate in the transaction of the House proceeding failed flat on them, the Speaker without transacting any business adjourned the House immediately at 10.31 am till 12.30 pm on Monday. Due to unruly scene, the Question hour could not be transacted.
Similar situation continued even at 12.30 pm when the House reassembled in the Zero hour and the agitating Congress members tried to disrupt the proceedings.
However, the Speaker informed the Congress members in dharna that the Chief Minister had agreed to reply on Itishree murder case and appealed the leader of the Opposition to return to the seat along with his party members.
Though Singh accepted the ruling, yet he urged the Speaker to take up the issue on Monday. “We are not in favour of paralysing the House. However, there was an attempt that some other Ministers than Chief Minister Patnaik would reply to the debate on the lady teacher's murder case. Therefore, I was forced to sit on a dharana on Saturday demanding reply from none other than Chief Minister himself," Singh maintained.
On the other hand, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kalpataru Das informed that the Chief Minister was not scared to reply on the issue as alleged by the Opposition. Chief Minister had been making replies to the debates on every adjournment. However, as per the constitutional provision and rule of the House, there was no binding on the Chief Minister to reply on every debate and any Council of Minister authorised by him can make replies and answer questions, he said.
Das said that since the Chief Minister was preoccupied with the 14th Finance Commission, it was not possible on his part to come to the House to participate in the business. The Government is ready to discuss the adjournment motion on Tuesday and the Chief Minister had agreed to reply to the debate. It would be unfair on the part of the Congress members to insist on their demand for discussion on Monday, he said.
BJD member and former Minister Pradeep Maharathy, also slammed the Congress members’ attitude in stalling the House. Describing the demand of leader of Opposition as a non issue, he said that it was not decent on part of the leader of Opposition to sit on dharana in the well of the House.
Finally, quoting the Parliamentary Affairs Minister’s announcement in the House, Speaker Amat ruled that the adjournment motion would be discussed on Tuesday and the Chief Minister would reply.
This led normalcy to return in the House and scheduled debate on the first supplementary demand for expenditure relating to Water Resources and Agriculture department for the fiscal 2013-14, which were passed on voice vote.