Bhubaneswar, Aug. 25: Orissa Assembly today witnessed unruly scenes, with Opposition Congress members climbing on to the Speaker’s podium and trying to snatch away his microphone, forcing repeated adjournments.

Two bills were discussed in the House amidst the din, however, while the one relating to the expansion of civil court jurisdiction was passed despite Opposition boycott.

Raising the issue, leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said the Opposition members had given an adjournment motion for discussion on the alleged violation of reservation provisions for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes today.

However, the Speaker did not allow the discussion on the motion, which was unfortunate, he said.

Speaker Pradip Amat said the subject matter of the adjournment motion was no doubt an important one. But it would be taken up tomorrow as two official bills had been listed for today.

Alleging that the state government was ignoring the interest of the SCs and STs, Singh wanted to know why it would not be taken up today.

“We are being denied of our privilege for discussion on adjournment motion, which is supposed to be taken up every day,” said the leader of the Opposition.

Supporting his plea, Congress members trooped into the Well shouting slogans against the government and calling it “anti-SC and ST communities”.

When the Speaker went ahead with the discussion on the legislative business ignoring their plea, the enraged Congress members tried to disrupt the proceedings by climbing up on his podium and snatching his microphone.

The Speaker had to adjourn the proceedings repeatedly to restore normality in the House.

The Opposition members, however, insisted on the discussion on the adjournment motion and boycotted the discussion on the bills.

Treasury bench members participated in the discussion on the Civil Court (Amendment) Bill and it was passed in voice vote amidst the protest.

Henceforth, the civil judge (junior division) can take all suits up to Rs 50,000.

Earlier, the limit was Rs 10,000.