Bhubaneswar: Odisha assembly was adjourned minutes after its winter session commenced today as the Opposition raised slogans and Congress members stormed into the well alleging involvement of ruling BJD leaders in the ponzi scheme scandal in the state.
As soon as the question hour began after obituary reference for former MLAs who died recently, both Congress and BJP members were on their feet holding placards and banners which slammed the BJD government for "looting poor people's hard-earned money".
Some of the placards read that CBI probe had unmask BJD leaders while one even described Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as "No 1 Chit Minister of India".
Stepping up their attack, slogan-shouting Congress legislators trooped into the well in their bid to corner the government for the scam, now being investigated by CBI.
As pandemonium prevailed, Speaker Niranjan Pujari adjourned the house till 12.15 PM.
Congress veteran and Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra told reporters outside the House that he had written a letter to the speaker seeking permission to raise the issue by suspending the question hour.
"This (ponzi scheme scam) is a matter of concern affecting more than one crore people. As it is exceptionally urgent, I urged the speaker that I may be allowed to raise the issue by suspending the question hour," Mishra said.
However, the request went unheeded and the speaker went ahead with the question hour though the members wanted to discuss the chitfund issue, he said.
Earlier, the House made obituary references for former members of the assembly - Purushottam Nayak, Laxman Mallick, Mohan Nag and Brahmanand Biswal - who died recently. The members observed a minute's silence as a mark of respect to them.