Odisha Assembly speaker says 'sorry' for not allowing LoP to

Odisha Assembly Speaker S N Patro on Tuesday expressed regret for adjourning the House the previous day when Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik was speaking on the mysterious death of a woman panchayat official.

The speaker's action had irked the main opposition BJP members.

"I could not understand what the Leader of Opposition was saying yesterday. I feel sorry for that. I had no intention to debar him from speaking in the house," Patro said at the beginning of the Zero Hour this morning.

While opposition BJP welcomed the speakers gesture, the treasury bench members were surprised and raised question as how the speaker can tender apology.

Patro, however, said "A mistake is a mistake. If anyone commits mistake, there should be no hesitation in saying sorry".

BJP leader Naik, the leader of opposition, said: "We welcome the gesture of the speaker. It is his duty to protect rights of the members, particularly those belonging to opposition parties."
Quoting former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, Naik said: "You may run the government with absolute majority, but you cannot run the house by ignoring the opposition."
Referring to BJD, Naik said: "Today, the situation has changed and BJP has absolute majority. Who knows, one day the ruling BJD will also face the fate of Congress in Odisha."
Stating that he is the youngest leader of opposition in the history of Odisha Assembly, Naik said: "This assembly has seen many illustrious speakers including Nilakantha Das, Lingaraj Panigrahi, Nanda Kishore Mishra, Brajamohan Mohanty and many others. We should follow the great personalities.'