(From top) Surya Narayan Patro, Naveen Patnaik, Bhupinder Singh

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 22: Revenue minister Surya Narayan Patro has landed himself in trouble yet again.

Patro drew flak in the Assembly today for his alleged derogatory remark against the leader of the Opposition, Bhupinder Singh. Leaders of various parties demanded an apology and withdrawal of Patro’s remark. Finally, the Speaker expunged the offensive remark from the Assembly proceedings.

The minister stirred up a hornet’s nest as he was replying to a question on behalf of chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Singh wanted to know why Patro was replying to the question relating to the works department, which was headed by the chief minister, who was also present in the House. At this, Patro made some remarks against Singh that triggered protest from various political parties.

Naveen, who was sitting in the House, was visibly irked over the development.

BJP legislature party leader K.V. Singhdeo said the minister’s utterance against the leader of Opposition was to be construed as the state government’s statement, as he was replying on behalf of the chief minister.

The remark should be withdrawn forthwith, he demanded. Describing Patro’s remark as “unfortunate and unpardonable”, Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan demanded an unconditional apology from the minister.

Even Amar Satpathy, leader of Nationalist Congress Party, an ally of the ruling BJD, condemned the “manner and the language” used by Patro. Senior BJD legislator and former minister Damodar Rout also said Patro should not have made such a remark.

Sensing the mood, parliamentary affairs minister Raghunath Mohanty regretted the “unfortunate” incident. Patro, however, defended his statement, though he sought to clarify that he did not have any personal ill-feeling against Singh.

As if that was not enough, Patro faced another trouble with former agriculture minister Damodar Rout giving a privilege notice against him for his “misleading” statement in the House two days ago on his exit from the ministry.

Rout said Patro had stated in the Assembly on Saturday that he (Rout) was asked by the chief minister to resign because he had lost his confidence since 2009 in the wake of his alleged anti-Dalit remarks.

“If I had lost the chief minister’s confidence since 2009, how could I continue in office so long (till May, 2011)?” he asked.

“Similarly, his statement that the National Commission for Scheduled Castes had directed the state government to take action against me for my alleged anti-Dalit remark was not true. The case is pending in the court,” Rout said.

The notice of breach of privilege is under examination of the Speaker’s office. “I have received the notice and will examine it,” said Speaker Pradip Amat.

Earlier, Patro had stirred another controversy when he had told a vernacular daily following Rout’s unceremonious exit from the cabinet in May that his former colleague had to face the axe because he did not listen to his advice to compromise with the party bosses to remain in power.

However, Rout had rebuffed the advice asserting, “I didn’t want to remain in power by sacrificing my self-dignity.”