Bhubaneswar: The Winter Session of the Odisha Assembly was adjourned sine die by the Speaker Friday, 20 days before it was scheduled to end December 31.
Speaker SN Patro announced sine die adjournment of the House, in the absence of opposition BJP and Congress members, after passing the Appropriation Bill for the Supplementary Statement of Expenditure, 2021-22 of Rs 19,833 crore.
Amid uproar by opposition, the Appropriation Bill was passed in the House. Soon after that, government chief whip Pramilla Mallick moved a motion proposing sine die adjournment on the session considering the Covid-19 situation and no legislative business left to discuss.
Protesting the move, opposition BJP and Congress members staged a walk out and sat on dharna before the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Assembly premises.
Out of 26 business days of the winter session that started on December 1, the House was assembled for only nine working days. However, the session was completely washed away over Kalahandi lady teacher Mamita Meher murder case.
The Assembly was unable to conduct business smoothly even for a single day.
From the very beginning, both opposition parties, BJP and Congress, were demanding removal of Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra for his alleged link with the prime accused in the Mamita Meher murder case.
As the government was not in a mood to accept their demand, the opposition continued to create ruckus in the House till today.
On the other side, the treasury bench members also created uproar in the House targeting Centre over several issues including price rise.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had made a statement in the Assembly over this issue assuring the House that his government is committed to give justice to the victim. The Speaker has also conveyed all party meetings several times. However, all such attempts of the government failed to bring normalcy in the House.
The Assembly witnessed innovative kinds of protests like beating gongs and sprinkling of ‘Ganga Jal’ during the session.
Except the Appropriation Bill, not a single Bill either introduced or passed in the Assembly during the nine days. The House had passed a resolution authorising the State government to move the Centre for declaring the 1817 ‘Paika Bidroha’ as the first war of Independence.
BJP legislator JN Mishra slammed the government for closing the session much before the scheduled date. “This has become a habit of this government to close the Assembly sessions much before the time. Sometimes, they close it before 20 days and some other time 25 or 30 days,” Mishra alleged.
The Chief Minister, who is the leader of the House, is visiting various districts for election campaigning and going to attend a programme in Kalinga Stadium. Why is he insulting the Assembly by not attending it? he asked. The BJP leader said they will take up the Mamita Meher case along with other issues to the village-level.
Meanwhile, the National Students’ Union of India, the student wing of Congress, on Friday took out its Halla Bol protest rally to ‘gherao’ the state Assembly here, demanding justice in the Mamita Meher murder case. However, the protest turned violent when the activists clashed with the police personnel.
Congress leader Taraprasad Bahinipati alleged that police, under the direction of Dibya Shankar Mishra, have beaten their party activists entering into the Congress Bhawan.
Bhubaneswar DCP Umashankar Dash said the Congress activists pelted stones, hurled eggs and tomatoes at the police and attempted to set fire to a police vehicle.
IANS