Bhubaneswar: Stalemate continued in the Odisha Assembly for the third day on Wednesday as Opposition members from the Biju Janata Dal and the Congress stalled proceedings while demanding action against the son of Governor Raghubar Das for allegedly assaulting a government official.
There was ruckus when the House assembled for the day at 10.30 am for question hour, forcing Speaker Surama Padhi to adjourn the House till 4 pm.
Earlier, trouble started when Deputy Chief Minister K.V. Singh Deo stood up to reply to a question raised by Bharatiya Janata Party member Amar Kumar Nayak. BJD members trooped into the well of the House and started shouting slogans against the government, demanding action against the Governor’s son.
The BJD members later staged a noisy walkout when the party’s Deputy Leader Prasanna Acharya said that since the government is not taking any action against the Governor’s son, there was no point in participating in the debate on the motion of thanks on the address by the Governor.
The Opposition Congress members, who were also raising the same issue for the last two days, disrupting the transaction of business in the House, trooped into the well of the House protesting against the Union Budget 2023-24, presented in Parliament on Tuesday, offering very little to Odisha.
As the Assembly witnessed furore, the Speaker first adjourned it till 11.30 am, then till noon and finally till 4 pm.
On the inaugural day of the first session of the 17th Odisha Assembly on Monday, the opposition BJD and the Congress boycotted the address of the Governor to the House, accusing the government of not taking any action against Governor’s son for allegedly assaulting a government official.
The BJD members continued their protest in the Assembly despite state Law Minister Prithivraj Harichandan stating that the Governor’s house has already asked the Puri Collector to submit a report within 15 days on the alleged incident that took place in Raj Bhawan on July 7.
