PNS | Bhubaneswar
Expressing displeasure over the highhandedness of the State Government, Opposition Congress and BJP members met President Pratibha Patil here on Tuesday complaining about the indefinite adjournment of the Winter Session of the Legislative assembly well ahead of schedule.
The Assembly session which kicked off on November 18 was scheduled to end on December 19. “We also informed her how the mining scam had rocked the State. We demand a CBI inquiry into the scam,” said BJP Legislature Party leader KV Singh Deo after meeting the President at Raj Bhawan.
Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh, Opposition Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan, Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja, Surendra Singh Bhoi, BJP Legislature Party leader Singh Deo and BJP MLA Jayanarayan Mishra met the President and submitted a copy of the memorandum they had handed over to Governor MC Bhandare on Sunday.
“We urged her to take steps for re-summoning the House,” said Opposition chief whip Prasad Harichandan. “We inform her about the autocratic, undemocratic attitude of the Naveen Patnaik-led Government. The House has not yet been prorogued,” said BJP leader Singh Deo.
Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said that the President had assured to look into the issue. “Being the head of the Constitutional set up, she would certainly look into the issue,” Singh maintained. The party also demanded that a compensation package should be declared for the farmers who have been hit by drought.
Earlier, a delegation led by State BJP president Suresh Pujari also called on the President and appraised her about the latest political developments. “We submitted a memorandum demanding a CBI inquiry into the mining scam,” said BJP senior leader BB Harichandan, adding that they also raised the sudden closure of the House.
He further said that party also took up the farmers’ suicide cases and the drought that had hit the State. The party also took up the issue of the Government’s handing over the land of Lord Jagannath to the proposed Vedanta University. BJP’s national vice-president Jual Oram, former minister Surama Padhi and MLA Jayanarayan Mishra accompanied the team.
The BJD members, on the other hand, said that the Opposition was doing such things to gain political mileage.
Orissa Opposition demands reconvening of assembly
PTI, Dec 8, 2009
Bhubaneswar, Dec 8 (PTI) Opposition members in the Orissa assembly who have stayed put in the House after the winter session was adjourned sine die ahead of schedule, today sought intervention by President Pratibha Patil to reconvene it.
"The President gave a patient hearing and assured us of looking into the matter," Congress Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan told reporters after a delegation from his party and BJP met Patil.
While the session was scheduled to continue till December 19, it was declared adjourned sine die on December 6, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said.
The delegation also drew the President's attention to the alledged mining scam and sought a CBI investigation besides the plight of farmers due to drought and distress sale of paddy in the western region of the state
Opp leaders meet President
Times of India, Dec 8, 2009
BHUBANESWAR: After spending three nights inside the Assembly, the Opposition party leaders on Tuesday found President Pratibha Patil in hand to highlight the functioning of the Naveen Patnaik government. They met her and complained on "what were being done by the BJD government and how it is flouting the law" by abruptly ending the winter session in the middle the mining scam discussion.
Patil gave a patient hearing to the Congress and BJP joint delegation led by the leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh and received a memorandum detailing the complaints. "We urged the President to intervene. She heard us and assured to look into the matter," Congress legislator Prasad Harichandan, who accompanied the team, said. He said the Opposition had earlier urged the Governor on the same issue soon after Assembly session was declared suspended 11 days ahead of the schedule time and without completing the mandatory 60 days of sitting in a calendar year. "Now that the President is in the city, we thought it to be proper to apprise her of the goings-on in the state. We hope the highest constitutional authority of the country will do the needful for setting right this violation of the constitution," Harichandan said.
The delegation comprised six members from Congress and two from BJP. The Opposition had been hanging on to the Assembly since Saturday as a mark of protest after the government hurried to down the curtain on the session ostensibly to put a cap on further debates on the sensitive mining scam in which several politicians are suspected to be involved. The session ironically was brought to and end, much to the surprise of the Opposition parties, at a time when the CBI had intimated the Orissa high court expressing its willingness to investigate the case and the Central government giving its green signal for probe by the Central agency as well. The Opposition since then had been doing the session by them unilaterally. Apparently undaunted by chief minister Naveen Patnaik's remarks that the Opposition parties had been onto a "publicity stunt", they continued the "symbolic Assembly session" till evening dividing the time as normally done into question hour, zero hour, adjournment motion, followed by lunch hour and the afternoon session.
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