Opp SC/ST MLAs prostrate before Odisha CM in Assembly

A day after being evicted from their dharna site outside Chief Minister's chamber, opposition SC and ST MLAs today prostrated before Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik on the floor of the Assembly seeking redressal of their grievances.
The incident occurred when the Chief Minister was about to leave the House after paying condolence to former Law Minister Raghunath Patnaik who passed away yesterday.
The dalit and tribal MLAs, who were sitting in the well of the House overnight demanding implementation of the Odisha Reservation of Vacancies (ORV) Act, suddenly stood up and begged before the Chief Minister. As Patnaik remained unmoved and prepared to leave the House, they lied down on the floor in front of him near the Speaker's podium.

Though the agitating legislators were sitting on dharna in the well during the obituray reference, they joined the House in paying respect to the departed soul. The Speaker adjourned the House till 12.30 PM after the scene enacted by the MLAs on dharna.
"There is nothing wrong in prostrating before the Leader of the House for the interest of 38 per cent of the population of the state. We followed the Odia culture to put forth our demands. But, honourable Chief Minister, who has an unkind heart, ignored us," Congress MLA Prafulla Majhi said.
Majhi said, they sought support and cooperation of all the lawmakers irrespective of political parties to fight for the downtrodden people.

"The sanctity of the Assembly should not be violated in any way. They should protest in a democratic way," said BJD spokesperson Sashibhusan Behera.

BJP lawmaker Rabi Naik, who was one among SC/ST MLAs, said, "We have not brought any disrepute to the sanctity of the Assembly. We have just raised a demand that is vital for the interests of 38 per cent of the state's population."
The agitating MLAs were yesterday allegedly evicted from outside the Chief Minister's chamber in the Assembly forcibly by the security personnel. They had later shifted the dharna venue to the well of the House and spent a night there.

"The Assembly authorities had last night switched off the air-conditioner to harass us. But it was restored after we protested," said Prafulla Majhi.