Naveen Patnaik, Speaker Pradip Amat and leader of Opposition Bhupindar Singh with other House members on Assembly premises on Thursday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 13: The final session of the Assembly before general polls was extended by one day today to enable the House to pass the Lokayukta bill even as the Opposition accused the government of not tabling the CAG report.

The BJD is keen to encash the bill in the coming general elections. However, Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan said: “They have done it in a hurry to derive political mileage.”

Harichandan also brought a privilege motion against chief minister Naveen Patnaik for curtailing “the constitutional rights” of the MLAs by not laying the CAG report.

The Congress chief whip said the CAG report on the expenditure from the Consolidated Fund was required to be placed in the Assembly every year. However, the CAG report related to 2012-13 had not been placed in the House.

He said: “The CAG report was submitted. However, the Odisha government deliberately avoided tabling of the report, which has exposed the land scam of the general administration department and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority.”

In the morning, the Congress MLAs stalled the Question Hour, seeking CBI probes into mining scam and deposit collection fraud. They shouted slogans against the government. Speaker Pradip Amat had to adjourn the proceedings for an hour as the unruly scenes continued. Later, they staged a dharna outside over the issue.

Official amendments were incorporated in the bill. The minimum age for the chairperson and members of Lokayukta was increased from 45 years to 50 years. One of the three non-judicial members will be from SC, ST, women or minority community. This post will be filled up on a rotation basis.

However, the Opposition-sponsored amendment to bring judicial officers within the purview of Lokayukta was rejected.