Opposition Congress and BJP members continued to halt proceedings of the State Assembly for the third consecutive day on Friday over their demand for rollback of the power tariff hike.
like the earlier two days, Opposition members holding placards and shouting slogans rushed into the Well of the House as soon as it met at 10.30 am. Some of them even stood at the Reporters' table.
The House witnessed more noisy scenes as ruling BJD members stood at their respective seats and showed placards against the MCl for turning down State Government's request to sponsor Aahaar scheme. "MCl ra baimatruka manobhav chaliba nahin," a placard read.
Speaker Niranjan Pujari adjourned the House at 10.33 pm till 12.50 pm.
When the House reassembled at 12.50 pm, Opposition members also continued creating ruckus over their demand. The Speaker said as Energy Minister and Secretary are out of station, the meeting over tariff hike would be held on Monday and urged the members to cooperation.
Amidst slogan shouting, the Chief Minister presented an Expenditure of Rs3649,42,12,000 for discussion and passing.
Earlier, the ruling party MlAs also staged a dharna under the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Assembly premises protesting against MCl's decision.
The Speaker adjourned the House till Monday.
253 new towers in Maoist zones this year, says CM
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday said 253 new mobile towers would be set up in the State's Maoist-prone areas this year. He was replying to the discussion on demands for grants of the Home Department in the Assembly. About anti-Maoist operations, he said the police have arrested 71 Maoists, including top cadres like Sabyasachi Panda and T Anil Kumar, in 2014. During the operations, police also seized 34 state-of-the-art weapons and 143 other arms and ammunitions.
Stating that the Government has made adequate security arrangements for this year's Nabakalebar, Patnaik said a hi-tech police control room would be set up at Puri during the mega festival. To keep a watch on criminal activities during the festival, the district intelligence wing has been strengthened.
Replying to a question on the inordinate delay in providing passports to people, Patnaik said the State Government has decided to introduce online verification for quick and easy passport services.
"Since it is found that the delay is due to the verification of criminal antecedents of the applicants, a decision has been taken for online police verification which would be much quicker and make it easier for the applicants to receive their passports," he added.