A STRONG CONFUSING OVER RAILWAY BUDGET AND DROUGHT PACKAGE ON ODISHA ASSEMBLY

A STRONG CONFUSING OVER RAILWAY BUDGET AND DROUGHT PACKAGE ON ODISHA ASSEMBLY 16/03/2012


ODISHA NEWS:

The Odisha Assembly on Thursday adjourned eight times due to acrimonious exchanges between ruling and opposition members. Due to the ruckus, the House could run for only 26 minutes in the pre-lunch sitting virtually with no transaction of business including question hour.


As the Speaker took up the question hour, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh raised a question of privilege stating that the Revenue Minister had misled the House by giving two different replies on the same issue of drought in the House and demanded discussion on the issue by suspending business.


Meanwhile, Congress members thronged the Well. As some irate members continued anti-Government slogans demanding resignation of Patro, others were seen trying to climb up the Speaker's podium which was foiled by the watch and ward staff.


Unable to run the House, Amat was forced to adjourn the House first at 10.45 am, 15 minutes after the question hour began, till 11.50 am and again at 11.53 till 12.03 noon. Since there was no change in the situation, Amat had to adjourn the House at 12.11 hours for lunch till 3 pm.


However, taking advantage of the adjournment, a minute before the House reassembled at 11.50 am, some Congress members were seen occupying the Speaker's podium.

Protesting the unruly behaviour, Treasury Bench members started shouting slogans en mass against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for the injustice meted out to the State in the Railway Budget.



When the House resumed at 12.03 pm, there was no change in the situation. Amidst chaos, BJD and NCP members vehemently slammed the Centre for the neglect and demanded a censure motion against the Centre.

In the afternoon sitting, the situation worsened between the two sides as Congress members tried to defend the allocation in the Railway Budget.

Unable to run the proceedings, the Speaker was forced to adjourn the House consecutively for five times from 3.02 pm to 5.17 pm to bring a negotiated settlement which yielded result after a marathon meeting.

Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat had to initiate the process of consultation with the legislative parties' leaders by adjourning the House twice for one hour in a bid to break the stalemate and enable the House to discuss and pass the important demand for grants for the financial year 2012-13 relating to the Panchayati Raj department.


The over two-hour long marathon meeting yielded result and the House returned to normal at 5.17 pm following which Amat ruled that the Revenue and Disaster Management Minister would make a detailed statement on the drought package vis-a-vis the communication with the State Election Commission.

Pandemonium prevailed as the House resumed for the day to take up question hour. While Opposition Congress stalled the proceedings for the second consecutive day demanding the resignation of Revenue Disaster Management Minister SN Patro for misleading the House by giving different replies over drought and announcement of drought package outside the Assembly while the session is on, the Treasury Bench members shouted slogans against injustice done to the State in the 2012-13 Railway Budget and constant neglect by the UPA Government in allotment of funds to the State for the development of railways.

(INPUT : SANGRAM KESARI PANDA)

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF, THESE DAYS,
ODISHA