Bhubaneswar: The opposition BJP and Congress in the Odisha Assembly Wednesday raised objection to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reading out the speech he delivered while replying to the debate on the Home and General Administration department demands.
The issue was raised in the Assembly during the Zero Hour when Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra stood to speak on a privilege notice he served for consideration. He was, however, not allowed to speak on the privilege notice as the matter was under examination of Speaker B K Arukha.
When Mishra raised objection for being denied permission to speak on the matter, Speaker Arukha said that he would certainly allow him, but after examination. Leader of Opposition Jayanarayan Mishra of BJP also urged the Speaker to allow the CLP leader to speak on the privilege notice.
There was an exchange of words between the Congress and BJD members over Patnaik reading out the speech from a sheet instead of directly speaking to the House while replying to the debate on the Home and General Administration department demands Tuesday night.
The Opposition’s objection was opposed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Niranjan Pujari who said that there is provision under the Rules that a minister can read out speech in the House.
“Along with Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, I am also the Finance minister. Am I not reading the budget speech in the House? Therefore, there is nothing wrong in a minister reading out speech in the House,” Pujari argued.
The CLP leader rejected Pujari’s argument and claimed that though the Finance minister reads the budget speech, it is presented in the House. He said a member or minister can refer books, newspapers and other write ups during the speech, but cannot read it out as it is.
The issue evoked commotion between the opposition and treasury bench creating a noisy scene.
In between, Speaker allowed ruling party member Debiprasad Mishra to speak on the Mahanadi water crisis issue.
“The Mahanadi, which passes through 15 out of Odisha’s 30 districts, has dried up due to check dams constructed by Chhattisgarh government at the upstream of the inter-state river. They are releasing excess water during monsoon flooding the lower catchment areas in Odisha and stop water flow during the summer causing hardship for lakhs of people in the state,” the BJD member said.
The BJD leader described the Congress led UPA and the BJD NDA as two side of the same coin. “Both the UPA and NDA government have worked against Odisha’s interest for which Chhattisgarh has been obstructing free flow of water to downstream,” he alleged demanding a ruling from the chair for a special discussion on the Mahanadi water crisis.
The Speaker in his ruling asked the Water Resources minister to make a statement on the water crisis in the Mahanadi river.
The LoP said that his party was prepared for a discussion on the Mahanadi water crisis. He criticised the BJD government for not utilising Mahanadi water as a huge volume is flowing to the sea. “The Odisha government has not been able to construct any check dam to regulate water in the downstream,” the BJP leader said.
Referring to Patnaik’s Tuesday remarks against Opposition that they are insulting the people of Odisha by raising the issue of lawlessness in the state, the LoP said: “We have just said that Odisha has been witnessing rise in crimes like murder, rape, cyber crimes and other such offences quoting the White Paper released by the Home department. The White Paper itself says how the law and order situation has deteriorated in the state,” he said.
PTI
