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| Pradeep Amat |
Bhubaneswar, Feb. 5: A no-confidence motion, moved by the Congress against the Naveen Patnaik government, will be taken up for discussion on February 12. The BJP has decided to support the Congress motion.
Speaker Pradeep Amat went through the formality of accepting the notice given by Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan. A motion to be accepted by the House needs support of a minimum 14 MLAs.The fate of the motion, however, is known as the BJD commands absolute majority in the 147-member Assembly. The BJD has 108 MLAs, the Congress 27 and the BJP six. The CPI’s lone member and one of the five Independents are supporting the BJD.
“We will support the motion and expose the misdeeds of the BJD government,” said BJP legislature party leader Jaynarayan Mishra. This being the last session of the Assembly before the general elections, Opposition parties want to use the forum to highlight the failures and misdeeds of the government.
“We will utilise this opportunity at the fullest,” said a senior Congress leader. The Speaker, however, today rejected an adjournment motion on alleged embezzlement of relief materials meant for Phailin victims in Cuttack. Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh had demanded that the matter be discussed in the House, suspending all other business. The Speaker rejected the motion on the ground that the matter was not of recent occurrence.
Congress chief whip Harichandan said the matter was of public importance since the relief materials meant for Phailin victims were bungled by councillors of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation in October last.
Demanding a discussion, he sought to know the outcome of the vigilance probe. He also demanded that report of the revenue divisional commissioner and other documents be tabled in the House.
Urban development minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the motion had been brought keeping the Cuttack Municipal Corporation polls in view. Echoing Mishra, BJD member Alekh Jena said the issue of relief should not be politicised.