Cong seeks Prez intervention as BJD continues to stall House

Seeking resignation of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for allegedly failing to ensure smooth functioning of the Assembly due to ruckus by the ruling BJD members, Opposition Congress on Thursday sought the President’s intervention to uphold the Constitution and law of the land.

As the House remained paralysed for the second consecutive day over the Mahanadi and Polavaram issues, Congress lawmakers suspected it as a part of a “well hatched conspiracy”. “We demand resignation of the Chief Minister as he failed to run the House. 

His party members have been creating ruckus leading to disruption of the proceeding. The Speaker is also not acting in a neutral manner,” Leader of Opposition 

Narasingha Mishra of Congress told reporters.

“It is clear that the Speaker is hand in glove with the ruling party as he blatantly fails to maintain neutrality.

There is every reason to believe that the Chief Minister, the Speaker and others conspired not to allow the proceeding of the House and to adjourn the same,” state the letter to President Pranab Mukherjee signed by 13 of the 16 Congress MLAs.

This is not that the treasury bench members who stalled proceeding of the House, they too did not bother to respect the National Anthem. 

“When the national anthem was being played on Wednesday, the ruling BJD members rose to their feet, shouted slogans and disrupted the proceeding in the House,” the letter said.

 Claiming that the Opposition was in utmost restraint during the developments, the President was informed that the Leader of Opposition had on Wednesday given a notice for discussion on the Mahanadi issue.