New Delhi: In a major embarrassment for the ruling BJD, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Friday quashed a privilege motion moved by three of its members a few days ago against Minister of State for Water resources, Sanjeev Balyan for ‘misleading’ the House about projects being constructed by the Chhattisgarh government in the upstream of Mahanadi river.
The motion had been moved by BJD parliamentary party leader Bhartruhari Mahatab and MPs Nagendra Pradhan and Prabhas Singh.
"The speaker has disallowed out motion and we are not satisfied with it," Singh told OTV.
Meanwhile the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said the motion moved by the BJD leaders was a gimmick.
"Privilege motion is nothing but purely a gimmick. The BJD is telling big lies to the people of Odisha. The party including its supremo Naveen Patnaik will be swept away in the stream of lies," Union minister Jual Oram stated.
On July 26, during a calling attention motion on the Mahanadi water row between Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Balyan had told the Lok Sabha that Chhattisgarh had submitted a detailed project report on the Kelo project to Odisha in 2006. The project was completed in 2009. "If Odisha had an objection, it should have come between 2006 and 2009. It is talking about it today," Balyan had said.
Later Majahan had sought Balyan's response on a breach of privilege notice against him on the issue.
The BJD had served the breach of privilege notice against Balyan alleging that the minister had misled the Parliament on the Mahanadi issue.