Though normal businesses were conducted in the House on Thursday, it experienced noisy scenes for some time as the Opposition Congress Members created disruptions demanding ouster of expert members of Western Odisha Development Council. The uproar forced the Speaker to adjourn the House for 30 minutes from 11.30 am to 12 noon.
The issue of status of present expert members kept the House hot in the question hour as the both the Opposition Congress and the BJP members expressed their dissatisfaction over reply of Planning and Coordination Minister Ananga Udaya Singh Deo on a question of Santosh Singh Saluja. Sri Saluja had wanted to know whether the nominated expert members of WODC required qualifications or not. He had also asked whether works were being allotted on the recommendation of such member or not.
Other Opposition Members including Subal Sahu, Jayanarayan Mishra, Anup Sai and Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo alleged that the expert members who have been nominated to the WODC have no expertise. Rather, the State Government has nominated BJD’s failed members to the posts. They said as per the WODC guidelines the expert members should have expertise in prescribed fields and should belong to concerned districts for which WODC works.
Alleging that some of the expert members have been nominated from outside the WODC area, the Opposition members said the outsiders are taking huge amount as TA and DA causing economic burden to the WODC.
In his reply, as the Minister said that one of the Members is staying in Delhi and he might be given TA and DA, most of the Congress Members rushed to the well of the House and started slogans demanding ouster of the ‘illegally’ nominated members of the WODC.
Issue of Lawyers agitation was also raised in the House. Members cutting across party lines opined that the protest of the Bar Council and the Bar Associations was justified. “If evening courts work for two hour in the evening, it would pose problems for all including lawyers and witnesses. While lawyers would not get time to meet their clients, the witnesses would face security problems especially in Maoist dominated areas,” they said and demanded the State Government should find some alternative to dispose of the cases.
An adjournment motion on ‘spread of cholera causing human tolls and the State Government has failed to contain the situation’ was also debated in the House. Slamming that the Government had no concern for the people suffering and dying in the Cholera in almost all the districts of the State, the Opposition members raised issues like lack of road communication, scarcity of drinking water and vacancies of doctors’ posts are not being full filled by the Government.
On the other hand, the Health Minister informed that a total of 132 people had died in KBK districts and 60 in other districts. “Government had taken timely steps to contain the health situation of KBK district arose out of spreading of diarrhea,” the Minister said.
In the afternoon session Members participated in a discussion on Odisha Municipal Amendment bill placed three days ego.
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