Even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik finally bowed down to the Opposition members’ demand and joined an all-party meeting convened by Speaker Niranjan Pujari, no consensus was reached for smooth functioning of the State Assembly on Tuesday.
The House witnessed as many five adjournments and conducted no normal business as Opposition Congress and BJP members, as on earlier days, kept rushing to Well of the House and insisted on demanding replies from the Chief Minister to the questions asked by leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra vis-à-vis the source of Rs 8 crore deposited in the ruling BJD’s bank account in a single day.
They too kept demanding the CM’s resignation for his silence on the alleged involvement of Minister Sanjay Dasburma and other BJD leaders in the chit fund scam and ouster of chit fund judicial commission chief Justice Madan Mohan Das for making a controversial statement regarding chit fund investors.
The Speaker adjourned the House first at 10.32 am till 11.30 am and subsequently for four times till 5 pm.
What was significant was that the Chief Minister attended the second all-party meeting of the day held at 5 pm. The first one had been held at 9.30 am. “We can’t say the all-party meeting was fully successful or a fully failure,” said the leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra after the meeting.
However, Government Chief Whip Anant Das said, “The Chief Minister wants the House to run smoothly. So, he joined the meeting on his own. We hope the House would run smoothly in the rest of days.” After the meeting, the Speaker adjourned the House at 5.31 pm till Wednesday morning.