Bhubaneswar: The second day of the winter session of the Odisha Assembly was marked by uproar by the opposition parties on the issue of tribal welfare fund as opposition members were reportedly not satisfied with the facts furnished by the minister.
Problem started during the question hour; Congress leaders trooped into the well and started raising slogans against the government and the minister. The situation became noisy when the answer to BJP MLA Rabi Naik’s question on the issue did not satisfy the opposition parties.
As the SC and ST development minister, Ramesh Majhi, responded to the query of the BJP MLA on the central allocation to the tribal welfare fund, the BJP MLA tried to corner the minister terming it as ‘wrong information’.
Soon the Congress members joined the cacophony and jumped into the well. The miffed Congress leaders who went ahead with protests were led by the party chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati. Congress MLAs also asked the Speaker to seek clarification from the minister for his response.
Left with no options, Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat adjourned the house till 12 pm after which, a debate on agriculture issue was taken up which evoked participation from MLAs from across party lines.
Bahinipati later told the media his party has been mulling to bring a ‘privilege motion’ against the minister for giving wrong information in the house. The Congress MLA also alleged that the ruling party had been appointing their party leaders in the tribal committee and are ignoring other parties in the state. BJP MLA Rabi Naik termed the whole incident “grossly unfortunate”.
PNN
