Stalemate continues in Odisha Assembly over farmer suicides

The impasse over the alleged farmer suicides continued in the Odisha Assembly today with opposition BJP members creating ruckus forcing Speaker Niranjan Pujari to adjourn the House thrice.
As soon as the House assembled for the Question Hour, the agitating BJP members led by Rabi Naik stormed into the well of the House demanding constitution of a House Committee to probe the cases of farmer suicide.
The House could function only for two minutes before Pujari adjourned the proceedings for one hour till 11.32 am.
The scene was repeated when the House reassembled.
They resorted to shouting slogans near the Speaker's podium following which Pujari adjourned the House till 3 pm. the same thing happened when the House reassembled at 3 pm and then the Speaker adjourned the House till 4 pm.

The House had been witnessing repeated adjournments for the last three days as the opposition BJP and Congress members continued to create pandemonium.

The leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra of Congress, however, held the Speaker responsible for the impasse and said that the Speaker did not take any decision on his party's privilege notice against Agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy.
"The Speaker's silence over the privilege notice adds to the situation. We had served the privilege notice against the minister for misleading the House on the suicidal death of Hadu Bagarti, a farmer from Bargarh district," Mishra said.
The leader of Opposition also criticised the opposition BJP for creating pandemonium in the House leading to repeated adjournments.

"The BJP has no intention to discuss the farmer suicide issue. They create noise in the House only for political mileage and not for the interest of the farmers," Mishra alleged.
Mishra claimed that after the death of Hadu Bagarti in Bargarh, at least four other such cases have been reported in the state. The government should take the farmers suicide issue seriously and the Speaker has a role to resolve the matter, he said.
Both the Congress and BJP have been demanding constitution of a House Committee to probe all farmer suicide cases.
The Congress has also demanded suspension of Bargarh District Collector who gave a report to the government without visiting the spot in case of Hadu Bagarti death case.