Pandemonium marks first day of assembly session

The winter session of the state assembly begun today amid uproar and clamouring as Opposition parties tried to stall proceedings, demanding resignation of Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik over the arrest of ruling party leaders by the CBI for their alleged involvement in the chit fund scam

Soon after the obituary references, MLAs belonging to Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started raising slogans, waved banners and staged dharna in the well of the house demanding Patnaik's resignation. As the din continued, the house was adjourned three times before being reconvened at 3.10 pm.

Though the Opposition members later toned down their demand of Patnaik's resignation after the government announced provisioning of Rs 300 crore to create a corpus fund in the Supplementary Budget to return money to chit fund victims, the BJP MLAs continued to raise slogans against BJD minister, Pradeep Maharathy for abusing its female legislator, Radharani Panda.

Later the BJP legislators met at the party office here and decided to urge the Speaker to ask Maharathy to apologise for his remark.

"The threatening and abusive words used by the minister against the lady MLA for raising the chit fund issue in the house not only tarnished her prestige and dignity, but also affected the dignity of the assembly. Such behaviour of the minister has to be reprimanded," said Basant Kumar Panda, leader of BJP legislative party in the assembly, in a letter addressed to the Speaker. BJP alleged that state agriculture minister, Maharathy had made derogatory remarks and tried to threaten its party MLA from Brajrajnagar, Radharani Panda when she was demanding resignation of chief minister over the chit fund scam in the house.

Later, some BJD MLAs were seen trying to pacify both the minister and the BJP MLA, but the matter did not end there. The Speaker then called for an all-party meeting to resolve the issue and ensure smooth conduct of the proceedings of the house.

The state unit of BJP organised a protest march in front of the residence of minister, Maharathy.