Cong serves privilege notice against Odisha CM

Accusing the state government of misleading the assembly, opposition Congress today served a privilege notice against Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat said he was examining the notice served by Congress Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan.
The alleged breach of privilege was committed by Patnaik while making a statement on demand for grant of home department and general administration department in the assembly on December 10, 2013, Harichandan said in a letter to the assembly secretary.
Quoting the Chief Minister, he said "I would like to point out that the State Government has already spent Rs 323.39 crore upto 2012-13 from its own resources under SRE Scheme. But, it is a matter of regret that the Government of India has not reimbursed Rs 179.91 crore in spite of several request from the state government.

"This, however, is not true. According to Ministry of Home Affairs an amount of Rs 111.62 crore was found admissible for reimbursement under the Security Related Expenditure Scheme for the years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 based on the audit conducted by the Internal Audit Wing (IAW) of MHA," Harichandan said in the notice.
MHA had released Rs 102.85 crore and reimbursed Rs 14.61 crore and thus total amount reimbursed to the state government as on November 30 last was Rs 117.46 crore against Rs 111.62 crore found admissible for reimbursement, he said.

Therefore, all reimbursement claims to Odisha State Government as per audit report recommendation have been settled except an amount of Rs 45.86 crore recommended by IAW for reimbursement.

"Being the Chief Minister in-charge of the Home Department, he (Patnaik) was fully seized with the facts and figures and deliberately and knowingly misled the Assembly," Harichandan alleged.
"Therefore, he is liable of breach of the House. Hence this question of privilege is raised," his letter said.