Ruckus in Odisha Assembly; Opposition demands Patnaik's resignation

Bhubaneswar: The second phase of the Budget session of the Odisha Assembly began here on Friday on a stormy note with the House adjourned twice as the opposition demanded resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik alleging that the state police failed to reveal the exact cause of ex-minister Naba Kishore Das's assassination.

As soon as the House assembled for the day, both the Congress and BJP members trooped into the Well of the House demanding Patnaik's resignation as he also holds the Home portfolio. Raising slogans, both the opposition parties, demanded an impartial probe into the incident.

While the BJP demanded a CBI probe into the incident, the Congress pressed for an Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe.

The Congress members were seen staging agitation standing on a chair in front of the Speaker’s podium and BJP members raised anti-government slogans from the Well of the House.

Unable to run the House, Speaker B K Arukha first adjourned the proceedings till 11.30 am. When the House reassembled again, similar scene was observed forcing the Speaker to again adjourn the proceedings till 4 pm.

"The state government should engage an SIT to probe into the Naba Das murder case as the crime branch has utterly failed to investigate into the case. The CB investigation is only Gopal Das centric and no progress into the conspiracy angles," Congress Pradeep Bahinipati told reporters outside the House.

Similarly, BJP chief whip Mohan Majhi said: "So far 41 days have passed since killing of a cabinet minister and the state government is in dark over motive of the crime. Therefore we demand resignation of chief minister and a CBI probe." The Budget session, which commenced on February 21, will continue till April 6 with a break from March 2 to 9.