The Government finally rubbished the demand for constitution of a House Committee to probe the farmer suicide cases, even as the Assembly has been witnessing uproar by the Opposition leading to repeated adjournments over last many days.
Chief Whip Anant Das on Monday rubbished the demands of the Opposition stating that the existing Standing Committee can investigate into the incident and submit its report in the House.
As the House met for the day, the Opposition MlAs stood up at their respective seats and demanded that the Speaker form a House Committee for investigation so that the exact reasons behind farmers’ suicides can be known. As Speaker Niranjan Pujari didn’t pay any heed, they soon trouped into the Well of the House and shouted slogans against the Government.
Unable to run proceedings, Pujari adjourned the House for one hour at 10.31 am.
Though normalcy was restored during the Zero Hour, yet leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra and other Opposition members criticised the Government for not agreeing to their proposal.
“Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy has made two different statements vis-à-vis Bargarh farmer Hadu Bagarty’s suicide. In his first reply, he said Bagarty committed suicide following a quarrel with his wife and in his second he said the deceased farmer took the extreme step for the reason other than farming. The Bargarh district Collector submitted these two controversial reports. Hence, the incident needs to be probed by a House Committee,” Mishra argued.
Opposition Chief Whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati insisted that the Collector be suspended soon for the fake report. BJP’s Bibhuti Bhushan Harichandan and other Opposition members too slammed the Government over the issue.
later in the evening, the House passed the expenditure of the Industries and Steel and Mines departments.