All-party meet fails to resolve assembly impasse

The second all-party meeting convened today by the speaker of the state legislative assembly Pradeep Amat in the presence of state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to resolve the assembly imbroglio over the coal scam turned out to be inclusive with the Opposition adamant in its demand for the resignation of the ministers.

Bhupinder Singh, Leader of the Opposition said, “There was no outcome of the all-party meeting. We provided many facts indicating the involvement of the two ministers- Pratap Jena and Badri Narayan Patra in the coal scam and we remain firm in our demand for the resignation of the two ministers. The Opposition would continue to boycott the proceedings of the assembly in case of non-fulfillment of the demand.”

However, the Chief Minister has termed the demand of the Opposition as unjustified.

“I have already clarified in my statement on the coal scam that the Opposition's demand for the resignation of the two ministers is unjustified. I requested the Opposition members to cooperate by participating in the Assembly proceedings as this is so important for the state but they remained adamant in their demand”, Patnaik said after emerging out of the all-party meeting.

Pradeep Amat said, “I have appealed to the Opposition to cooperate by participating in the proceedings of the house but they have not given any assurance on this matter. The proceedings of the house would continue anyways even without the participation of the Opposition members.”

It may be noted that the all-party meeting called on Monday to resolve the deadlock had failed to cut any ice as the Chief Minister was absent at the meet.

Even as the Opposition members are in mood to back out from their stand to boycott the assembly proceedings unless their demand is met, the house conducted its business in their absence. The coal scam has rocked the house since the beginning of the second phase of the monsoon session of the assembly on July 14.