Bhubaneswar, Dec. 22: Three Bills were passed in the Assembly on its concluding day within 15 minutes without discussion amid protest by Opposition Congress members.

The agitated Congress members climbed into the Speaker’s podium, snatched his microphone and threw away papers from his table to stall the passage of the Bills.

The Opposition alleged that the Odisha government was hastily passing the Co-operative Amendment Bill to defer elections to co-operative bodies once again. The government had told the House in August last year that the elections to the co-operative bodies would be held within six months. “But it’s more than 16 months and there is no sight of elections,” said leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh.

The present Bill is yet another move to stall the polls. The government had superceded all the co-operative bodies in Odisha on the plea that the tenure of such bodies would become uniform.

Today, the government took up the Bill for consideration and the Congress members were on their feet against it, which was aimed to set up a separate election commission to conduct the polls for the co-operative bodies. Stating that the government was trying to postpone the polls, the Congress members made vociferous protests.

As soon as the House assembled for the day, the Congress members rose from their seats, demanding pension for farmers and bonus for paddy. The House witnessed two adjournments. When it re-assembled, the House took up the co-operative Bill and in the din it was passed. Amid slogan shouting and uproarious scenes, the government also got two other Bills passed.

Last week, the Congress had accused the government of getting four Bills passed when its members had staged a walkout in protest against the suspension of Congress MLA S.S. Saluja for one week.

In his concluding remarks, chief minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated the members for getting 15 Bills passed during the session.

Congress leader and party chief whip Prasad Harichandan told reporters that the government had been getting the Bills passed without discussions and without the participation of the Opposition. For the co-operative Bill, the House had kept three hours for discussion, but the Bill was passed in 10 minutes time.

The House witnessed a heated exchange between Opposition leader and ruling party’s chief whip Pravat Tripathy for Singh’s remark that Naveen was a “dictator” and “killer of democracy.” The Congress accused the government of “bulldozing the Opposition” in view of its brute majority. To substantiate their points, the Congress members pointed out that several adjournment motions were not taken up by the House on one plea or another.

During the session, the Congress had been highlighting the plight of farmers and wanted the farmers be entitled to get pension. “If the government spends Rs 95 crore from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for distributing cycle to students to garner votes, why can’t the farmers get pension,” asked a Congress member.