Bhubaneswar, April 2: The BJD will bring a resolution in the Odisha Assembly urging the Centre to declare it as a special category state.
The resolution, to be moved by Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, will come up in the House on April 4. Considering that both the Congress and the BJP are in favour of the demand, the resolution may become unanimous.
The issue of special category status today dominated the proceedings of the House with the Congress demanding a discussion. The agitated Congress members occupied the Well, forcing a series of adjournments.
As soon as the House assembled in the morning, leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh demanded that the matter pertaining to Odisha’s interest be taken up for discussion forthwith.
However, Speaker Pradip Amat ignored his plea and proceeded with the question-answer business. Enraged over this, the Congress members trooped into the Well and shouted slogans against the government.
The BJD members, on the other hand, rose on their seats and started shouting slogans against the Congress government for the alleged gang rape of an Odia woman in Delhi on Saturday. They were also seen showing copies of vernacular dailies.
Finding it difficult to run the House, Amat adjourned the proceedings for an hour within three minutes. When the House reassembled after an hour, the same unruly scenes continued.
Three bills were introduced in the din. These bills were the Odisha Industrial Security Force (Amendment) bill, the Odisha Government Land Settlement (Amendment) bill and the Indian Stamp Odisha (Amendment) bill. All the three bills were referred to the Business Advisory Committee for allotment of time.
Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly, Singh said they had given an adjournment motion for discussion in the House today. But, it was disallowed. “It seems that the government has no sincerity in getting the special category state status. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is just playing to the gallery by just writing letters,” he said.
He said it was during the Congress regime, the Assembly had passed unanimous resolutions twice (November 1997 and August 1998) demanding special category status for Odisha.
The BJD, which was a part of the NDA government till 2004, had done nothing in this regard. In 2003, Uttarakhand was declared as a special category state, he said.
Later during the day, Naveen gave a notice to the Speaker, intending to move an official resolution urging the Centre to declare Odisha as a special category state.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kalpataru Das said: “The chief minister has been putting forth the demand before the Centre several times. But, the Centre turned down it. Our government wants to reiterate the demand through an unanimous resolution passed by the Assembly.”
