Bhubaneswar: The pandemonium in the Odisha Assembly continued for the fourth consecutive day Tuesday. No work has been done for the past four days due to the protests by the Opposition as well as the ruling BJD members. This impasse forced Speaker Surya Narayan Patro to call an all-party meeting which also failed to resolve the issue. The House will again resume at 4.00pm.
Since the beginning of the second phase of Budget session, the House has been rocked over the paddy procurement issue. As the House assembled at 10.30am Tuesday, the members of the BJP and Congress as well as the BJD, rushed towards the well. While the Congress and BJP members shouted slogans over non-procurement of paddy, the BJD members sought an apology from Deogarh MLA Subash Panigrahi for trying to commit suicide by drinking sanitiser inside the Assembly.
The speaker then decided to call for an all-party meeting when the House resumed at 12 noon. At the outset, the Congress members walked out of the meeting. They alleged that the main issue of paddy procurement was taking a back seat. So no consensus could be arrived upon for conducting Assembly proceedings.
While speaking to journalists, Government Chief Whip Pramila Mallick said, “By attempting suicide inside the House, the BJP MLA has brought down its dignity. We will not allow the House to function as long as he doesn’t tender an apology.”
Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Nayak said there is no question of Panigrahi tendering an apology. Justifying the latter’s act, Nayak said he had attempted suicide as the government did not respond to his repeated demands of resolving paddy procurement issue.
The House is again scheduled to resume at 4.00pm. However, it is doubtful whether any work can be conducted.
PNN