Heat In Odisha Assembly Over Congress’ Privilege Notice Against CM Naveen Patnaik

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Assembly on Wednesday witnessed heated exchange between opposition and and ruling party members over refusal of permission to discuss a privilege notice moved against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Narasingha Mishra, who moved the privilege notice, sought to know as to why he was not allowed to speak on the matter.

The veteran Congress leader wondered if it was not accepted just because the notice was moved against the Chief Minister.

BJP stalwart and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Jayanarayan Mishra also lashed out at the government and sought to know the reason the reason behind rejection of discussion on the privilege notice.

Both Congress and BJP hit out at the Chief Minister for reading out the speech he delivered while replying to the debate on the Home and General Administration department demands.

The issue was raised in the Assembly during the Zero Hour when Narasingha Mishra stood to speak on a privilege notice he served for consideration. He was, however, not allowed to speak on the privilege notice as the matter was under examination of Speaker B K Arukha. Jayanarayan Mishra of BJP also urged the Speaker to allow the CLP leader to speak on the privilege notice.

The House witnessed an exchange of words between the Congress and BJD members over Naveen reading out the speech from a written sheet instead of directly speaking while replying to the debate on the Home and General Administration department demands on Tuesday night.

The Opposition’s objection was opposed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Niranjan Pujari who said that there is provision under the Rules that a minister can read out speech in the House.

“Along with Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, I am also the Finance minister. Am I not reading the budget speech in the House? Therefore, there is nothing wrong in a minister reading out speech in the House,” Pujari argued.

The CLP leader rejected Pujari’s argument and claimed that though the Finance minister reads the budget speech, it is presented in the House. He said a member or minister can refer books, newspapers and other write ups during the speech, but cannot read it out as it is.

The issue evoked commotion between the opposition and treasury bench creating a noisy scene.