The State Assembly on Wednesday witnessed uproarious scenes and repeated adjournments over the power tariff hike announced on Tuesday. As soon as the Question Hour began, Opposition members stood at their seats raising slogans and waving placards against the tariff hike. "Bidyut sulka brudhikari, gariba, chashi, sadharanana lokanka upare korada mada (The poor, farmers and common people have been given a major blow by jacking up power tariff)," a placard read.
In response, the Speaker said the issue would be discussed in an Adjournment Motion given by them (Opposition) and hence they should cooperate in the conduct of the Question Hour first. Disagreeing on this, the Congress and BJP members rushed into the Well of the House and created a ruckus forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House from 10.31 am to 12.30 pm.
Similarly, the Speaker adjourned the House for a second time till 3 pm as the situation continued when the House reassembled at 12.30 pm."We had asked for the suspension of the Question Hour and a debate on the adjournment motion we had moved on the issue. But the Speaker did not accept our demand. He is within his rights to reject the demand. But we will continue to raise the issue that affects lakhs of electricity consumers in the State," leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra told mediapersons outside the Assembly.
"It is most unfortunate that the tariff hike was announced outside at a time when the House was in session. Our fight for rollback of the decision will continue both inside and outside the Assembly," said BJP legislature Party leader Basanta Panda.
In the afternoon session, Opposition members did not participate in the Demand Discussion relating to the School and Mass Education Department in the protest of tariff hike. After staging a walkout, they staged a dharna at the Mahatma Gandhi statue inside the Assembly premises. An expenditure of Rs 10,014,38, 52,000 was passed in the House in absence of the Opposition members.