Uproar over dismissal of Orissa Ministers

By Our Special Correspondent

BHUBANESWAR, AUG 2. The Orissa Assembly today witnessed noisy scenes during zero hour as the entire Opposition walked into the well of the House demanding that the Speaker, Mr.Sarat Kar, ask the Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Patnaik, to make a statement about his recent decision to dismiss three senior Ministers. The Speaker was forced to adjourn the proceedings first for five minutes and again within minutes of resumption of the proceedings as the members were back in the well.

Trouble started when the question hour came to an end as most of the Opposition members were on their feet wanting to raise a point of order. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr.Ramakanta Mishra of the Congress, said that since the Chief Minister had dismissed the Ministers on corruption charges, the House has a right to know what the charges were. Mr.Mishra said though the Government claims to be clean and transparent, it has failed to place in the House the property statements of the Ministers.

The Revenue and Law Minister, Mr.Biswabhusan Harichandan, said all the Ministers had submitted their property statements to the Chief Minister and if the Chief Minister wanted he could make them public.

Mr.Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mahapatra(Congress) said corruption was rampant and it was not only in the departments which the dismissed Ministers represented. He said he had proof that there was rampant corruption in the Water Resources Department which is being held by the Chief Minister.This agitated the treasury bench members, who tried to shout down Mr.Mahapatra. Mr.Mahapatra said he had given in writing to the Chief Minister and he was prepared to give proof and if he was proved wrong he was prepared to resign his Assembly seat.

As more than an hour had been consumed during the zero hour, the Speaker tried to go ahead with the day's proceedings but this was prevented by the Opposition forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for five minutes. On resuming, Mr.Kishore Das(JMM) again tried to raise a point of order and moved into the well of the House. Angered, the Speaker asked Mr.Das to go out of the House. This only aggravated the situation and the House was adjourned for lunch. On resumption after lunch, the Speaker said he was sorry for having asked the JMM member to leave the House and said he would during the day's proceedings announce the date when the Chief Minister would make a statement about the dismissal of the Ministers.

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Section  : Other States
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