Bhubaneswar: Monsoon Session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly began Tuesday as scheduled, with the House opening its proceedings at 11 am. The seventh session of the 17th Assembly began with the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’ and the national anthem after Speaker Surama Padhy took her seat.
Chief Minister and Leader of the House Mohan Charan Majhi moved condolence motions for former ministers Dambur Majhi and Sushant Singh, former government chief whip Satya Bhusan Sahu, and former members Ramamurthy Gamango, Haji Mohammed Ayub Khan and Sibaji Majhi. The House also mourned those who lost their lives in the recent floods in Nepal.
However, Opposition members stormed the well of the House over the amended mining law and errors in new textbooks for school children, forcing adjournment of proceedings till 1.10 pm.
The session began with an obituary reference to six former members of the Assembly and those killed in the Nepal flash floods.
Soon after, BJD and Congress MLAs trooped into the well, shouting slogans against the BJP government over the recent passage of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026, in Parliament and the errors in textbooks for school children.
While the BJD MLAs protested the errors in school textbooks, the Congress members demanded repeal of the MMDR Amendment Act.
Amid the din, Speaker Surama Padhy appealed to the MLAs to return to their seats, but in vain. The Speaker then adjourned the proceedings till 1.10 pm.
After the adjournment, the BJD MLAs reached the Mahatma Gandhi Marg where the party’s youth and student wing members are staging an ‘Assembly Gherao’ agitation.
“We will join the agitation demanding resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond over the textbook errors. The minister must be held accountable for the distribution of the error-ridden books to the school children,” said Opposition chief whip Pramila Mallik.
BJP MLA Irasish Acharya criticised the opposition for disrupting the proceedings.
“The government has taken action in the textbook error matter. The corrected books are being distributed. They create noise without any justified reason,” Acharya said.
The nine-day Monsoon Session of the Assembly, scheduled to run until October 3, is expected to see the introduction of six key Bills.