Ramakanta Biswas

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Assembly Speaker Surya Narayan Patro has once again called for an all-party meeting to break the stalemate in the House.

As per sources, discussion will be held in the meeting for smooth running of the House proceedings by bringing harmony among all the parties.

The Assembly proceeding was affected today due to uproar by the BJP MLAs over Mahanga double murder case. They demanded expulsion of Law Minister Pratap Jena and investigation of charges against him.

"There are direct allegations against Law Minister Pratap Jena in Mahanga double murder case and he has been named in the FIR. Why the government has not questioned him yet. How come a member against whom FIR has been filed can sit in the Assembly? He should be allowed to enter the House only after he proves innocent," demanded Leader of Opposition, Pradipta Naik.

Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja also raised the issue during the Zero Hour and demanded ouster of the Law Minister and arrest of those involved in the double murder case.

"As he is a minister, he should come forward and cooperate in the investigation so that there will be no room for frequent uproar in the House on the issue," said Congress leader, Narasingha Mishra.

The noisy scenes continued in the House prompting the Assembly Speaker to adjourn the House till 4 pm on Monday.

Speaking on the ruckus in the House, BJD MLA Debi Prasad Mishra said, "The parliamentary affairs minister and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik assured that the government is ready for discussion on the issue. However, it is really unfortunate that many important issues cannot be discussed in the ongoing budget session due to the uproar."

(Edited By Pradeep Singh)

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