Bhubaneswar: The Congress and the BJP on Monday stalled Assembly proceedings on corruption issues expelled BJD veteran Damodar Rout had recently raised.

Opposition MLAs stormed the well of the House causing three adjournments lasting for over two hours. The situation forced Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat to direct agriculture minister Pradeep Kumar Maharathy to make a statement on the sapling plantation scam.

Raising the issue, leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra said Maharathy had on September 4 informed the Assembly in reply to a written question submitted by Rout that a state-level departmental inquiry found the assistant director, horticulture, in Mayurbhanj district guilty of misappropriating government funds worth Rs 17.33 crore.

The misappropriation of funds had happened when Rout was agriculture minister and it came to be known as the sapling scam.

Following the inquiry, the assistant director was suspended. However, he was later reinstated and transferred to Nayagarh district.

Mishra asked: "Why was the tainted officer reinstated and the minister (Rout), who had initiated action against him, shunted out of the agriculture department?"

"Maharathy in reply to another related question raised by Rout on that day had said that instances of misappropriation of government funds of Rs 11.83 crore was detected in the horticulture department in Deograh, Balangir, Rayagada, Nabarangpur and Koraput districts," Mishra said. He demanded a statement from chief minister Naveen Patnaik about what action the government had taken against the erring officials.

Echoing Mishra, BJP legislature party leader K.V. Singh Deo said: "This shows that the Naveen Patnaik government is protecting corrupt officials."

After leaving the House, Rout got engaged in a verbal duel with cooperation minister Surya Narayan Patro.

Rout's charge of chief minister Naveen Patnaik "turning corruption into a principle of governance" angered Patro who charged him with having links with gangster Tito.