Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Assembly proceedings could run only for 11 minutes Wednesday, as the House witnessed ruckus and repeated adjournments following the Opposition’s demand for School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond’s resignation over errors in new textbooks for school children, and the amended mining law.
The House functioned only for 13 minutes Tuesday over the same demand by the Opposition MLAs.
Wednesday, the assembly was adjourned twice and the proceedings could run for a total of 11 minutes — five minutes in the pre-lunch session and six minutes in the afternoon amid the melee during which Opposition MLAs trooped into the well and staged demonstrations.
Neither the question hour, zero hour nor any adjournment motion could be taken up for debate due to a din in the well of the House. The government in the post-lunch session could lay certain papers.
As soon as the House assembled for Question Hour at 10.30 am, BJD and Congress members, holding placards, trooped into the well and staged an agitation near the Speaker’s podium demanding the resignation of the minister and the repeal of the new mining law.
While the BJD members raised the errors in textbooks issue, the Congress MLAs demanded the repeal of the MMDR Act. A section of the agitating members stood on the reporters’ table, while another group tried to climb onto the Speaker’s podium.
The errors include describing iconic scientist Isaac Newton as the greatest pilot, placing Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills in Jharkhand and printing a photograph of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly while labelling it as the Odisha Legislative Assembly.
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026 restricts state governments from levying additional taxes or cesses on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands.
The treasury bench members were seen silently sitting in their seats even as Opposition members raised anti-government slogans in the well.
The agitation gained intensity when Deputy Speaker Bhabani Shankar Bhoi, who was presiding over the proceedings, allowed Science and Technology Minister K C Patra to respond to the Opposition members’ queries.
Bhoi’s appeal to the agitating members to return to their seats fell on deaf ears, prompting the deputy speaker to adjourn the House till 4 pm for the first time within five minutes of functioning.
When the House reassembled, the similar scene was recreated and the deputy speaker was forced to adjourn the proceedings for the day till 10.30 AM of Thursday.
After the House was adjourned, the BJD MLAs headed to Mahatma Gandhi Marg to join an agitation by the party’s youth and student wings, who were demanding Gond’s resignation.
BJD MLA Sarada Prasanna Jena said that they are forced to stage agitation in the Assembly as the state government did not listen to the voice of people.
It has been about four months, but the errors in textbooks are not rectified. The students will appear for the half-yearly examination in a month, but are denied textbooks. The minister must step down owing moral responsibility, Jena said.
BJP lawmaker Irasish Acharya, however, blamed the Opposition for stalling proceedings of the Assembly.
The government has already started supplying corrected books to students and some people have been arrested in these irregularities. The Opposition is making irrelevant demands, he said.
