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Bhubaneswar, Sept 8: The second day of monsoon session of the state Assembly Friday was washed out as legislators of Opposition Congress and ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) created a ruckus over Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy.
Legislators of the ruling party raised the issue as soon as the House assembled for Question Hour. They sloganeered in favour of a hike in MSP for paddy and also demanded special category tag for the state.
Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat adjourned proceedings till 3 pm, following which a delegation of BJD MLAs submitted to the Governor a memorandum listing their demands and addressed to the President.
When the House reassembled at 3pm, Congress MLAs again raised pandemonium over the same issue. Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra later said an adjournment motion on a farmers’ problem the Congress intended to move could not be taken up owing to the disruption.
The speaker has adjourned proceedings till Monday (September 11).
“Those (BJD members) who have been entrusted with the responsibility of running the house smoothly, stalled the proceedings without reason. A debate on the issue would have put both the ruling BJD in the state and the BJP in an awkward position,” Mishra said.
Defending the ruling party MLAs, government Chief Whip Amar Satpathy said: “Though the Assembly had earlier passed a unanimous resolution and a house committee was formed to meet the Prime Minister over the issue, the Prime Minister did not allow appointment to the House Committee.”
“The Centre is least concerned about the problem of farmers for which we protested during the question hour,” he added.
Reacting on the development, BJP MLA Rabi Naik said, “Paddy MSP is fixed by the Centre based on consultations with farmers, state governments and other stakeholders. So, the state government must clarify who it had sent as its representative to discuss the issue and what their stand was at the meeting.”
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