Cong lawmakers move privilege motions against Odisha

Opposition Congress on Wednesday moved privilege motions against two Odisha ministers for allegedly misleading the House and a BJP legislator for misnterpretating the comments of the Congress Legislature Party leader.

Immediately after the question hour in the Assembly, Barabati-Cuttack MLA Mohammed Moquim moved a privilege notice against Odisha Agriculture and Farmer Empowerment Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo and demanded his resignation.

"I moved the privilege motion against the minister as he has attempted to mislead the House by giving facts not based on truth," Moquim told reporters outside the House.

The Congress lawmaker in his privilege notice said, "While replying a question on November 13, the minister has said that the state has identified 45,965 ineligible beneficiaries under the KALIA Yojana. But the information under RTI Act revealed that (there are) 1,72,908 ineligible beneficiaries under the scheme only in 10 districts of the state."
He said, "In view of this, the Honble Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Minister deserve to be punished for the breach of privilege."