The State Assembly witnessed frequent adjournments and couldn’t conduct normal businesses as Opposition Congress and BJP members and the lone CPI(M) MLA kept demanding withdrawal of the token system in paddy procurement and early solutions to the issues of rising atrocities against women and the Government’s non-response to issues raised by the Opposition.
As the House met, Congress Legislature Party Leader Narasingha Mishra wanted to raise the issues. But Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro asked him to take his seat and called Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera to reply to a question. But the Congress members rushed into the Well of the House and shouted slogans against the Government.
Unable to run the proceedings, Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro adjourned the House at 10.31 am till 11.30 am and subsequently till 12.30 pm, after a calling an all-party meeting. However, the House was adjourned twice again till 3 pm as the all-party meeting could not resolve the issue.
When the House reassembled at 3 pm, Leader of Opposition requested the Speaker to direct the Government to withdraw the token system and procure all paddy stocks from farmers in the western Odisha at the earliest.
Congress Legislature Party Leader Mishra alleged that the Government doesn’t respond to the issues raised by Opposition members and thus there is no use of holding discussions in the House.
“In a question, I wanted to know about investigation into the Rs 4,000-crore land scam in Balangir. The Minister replied that the department has no specific information about the scam. When we have time and again asked the Government to take action against erring police officials in the VLW Smitarani case, we have not received any response,” said Mishra.
He said the all-party meeting chaired by the Speaker could not yield any result as the Minister didn’t attend it. “When we demand that toke system be withdrawn, all paddy be directly procured from farmers, a bypass be constructed at Balangir, we have not got any response from the Government. Hence, our participation in the House is meaningless when,” said Mishra.
Meanwhile, all Opposition members rushed into the Well of the House and shouted slogans. Due to the continued ruckus, the Speaker adjourned the House at 3.24 pm till 4.24 pm and again till 5 pm when Supplementary Expenditures of Rs 54,87,50,000 relating to the Revenue and Disaster Management Department were passed amid protests by the Opposition members.
The Speaker adjourned the House at 5.06 pm till Friday.