Orissa Adjournment Row: Oppn Lawmakers Meet Governor
Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Sunday met Orissa governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare and submitted a joint-memorandum seeking his intervention to end the logjam stemming from the abrupt sine die adjournment of the state Legislative Assembly.
Submitting a joint-memorandum to the governor, Opposition leader Bhupinder Singh and BJP Legislature Party leader KV Singhdeo said the Speaker had abruptly adjourned the winter session of the House two weeks ahead of schedule.
Listing the adjournment as a violation of constitutional norms, the leaders urged the Governor to order for resumption of the winter session of the House to honour the statutory rules which prescribe for 60 days of sitting in a calendar year.
Meanwhile, both the parties have been staging a day and night sit-in inside the Assembly to mark their displeasure over the adjournment.
Opposition members have further decided to begin a symbolic session of the House on Monday. An Oppositon legislator will preside over the session, said unlikely partners Singh and Singhdeo.
They alleged that the House was unethically and undemocratically adjourned to save chief minister Naveen Patnaik from any embarrassment over a multi-crore mining scam by hurriedly moving an adjournment motion in the Assembly.
The chief minister, however, defended Speaker Pradip Amat for closing the winter session of the House ahead of the schedule, saying, “It was done as the House had no businesses to transact.”
The Congress and BJP questioned the BJD claim.
