Bhubaneswar: There was a commotion in the Odisha Assembly on Wednesday over a privilege notice brought by BJP chief whip Mohan Majhi against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for allegedly attacking the opposition and undermining the dignity of the Assembly.
Moving the privilege notice against the Chief Minister , during the zero hour, Majhi said that Patnaik had insulted the opposing parties, sullied the dignity of the house and the members.
Majhi demanded that the Chief Minister apologise to the House for his remarks on the floor of the House on September 25.
”The opposition is anti-people, and people will give them a befitting reply,” Patnaik said in a suo motu statement in the house on September 25.
Majhi, the Chief Minister, went on to say that people are happy, and people’s representatives are happy. Opposition members should not be dissatisfied for political reasons.
He alleged that the Chief Minister had made the statement in the house to protect his Secretary and insulted the opposition.
Majhi said we are all elected by people and asked the Chief Minister to clarify how we can become anti-people.
He demanded the Chief Minister to tender a to the house for insulting the opposition members and lowering the dignity of the house.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Niranjan Pujari dubbed the privilege notice given by Opposition Chief Whip Mohan Majhi as a political gimmick and said he should not be allowed to raise the issue.
Earlier during the zero hour Santosh Singh Saluja (Congress) moved a breach of privilege notice against the Works Minister for misleading the house and giving wrong information to a question asked by him on September 25.
Saluja said he had asked the Minister to reply how many tender notifications were made by the Works department during 2022-23 and 2023-24 and sought a detailed list about the type of work, estimated cost and the name of the division.
He also wanted to know why the tenders were not opened within time limit and why no agreement was appliedade and the reason for cancelling the tender already made.
Saluja alleged that the Minister had misled the house by giving wrong replies to some other questions and requested the Speaker to send his notice to the privilege committee.