Bhubaneswar, Feb. 28: The Odisha Assembly today witnessed uproarious scenes with the Opposition insisting on a discussion over the recent hooch tragedy that claimed 40 lives.

Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat reiterated his position that a discussion should not be held in the Assembly as a judicial commission was probing into the incident.

Holding placards and shouting anti-government slogans, Opposition Congress and BJP members occupied the well throughout the day, forcing a series of adjournments. An angry Ramachandra Kadam was seen snatching away the Speaker’s microphone and pen stand from his table. Independent member Pratap Sarangi even occupied the reporter’s table in their bid to stall the proceedings.

The House could hardly transact any business except going through a couple of questions despite uproar.

As soon as the House met this morning, leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh said the House should take up the adjournment motion brought by them. “The death roll has already touched 40. It may go up. Hence, such an important issue be discussed forthwith,” he said.

The Speaker proceeded with the question-answer session reiterating his position that a discussion on the hooch tragedy could be allowed as the judicial probe into the incident was on.

Infuriated over the Speaker’s ruling, the Opposition Congress and BJP trooped into the well.

Singh alleged that the Odisha government was under pressure from the liquor lobby and it wanted to avoid a discussion on the hooch tragedy.

“We are not afraid of any discussion. But, such a discussion will influence the judicial probe,” said parliamentary affairs minister Raghunath Mohanty.

“The government is trying to influence the Speaker and the Assembly proceedings,” said Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan.

Harichandan said the Opposition had given a fresh adjournment notice today and urged the Speaker to allow it. However, the Speaker said the content of the notice was same as the one given yesterday.

Loan heat on Naveen

The Opposition has attacked the Naveen Patnaik government for the growing debt burden, which has gone up by over Rs 20,000 crore in the past 12 years.

Revenue minister Surya Narayan Patro, during the Question Hour yesterday, admitted that Odisha’s debt burden stood at Rs 38,237.97 crore by the end of third quarter during this fiscal. Odisha’s debt stock was Rs 18,100.80 crore at the end of 1999-2000. The Naveen Patnaik government came to power in March 2000.

“Your government came to power with the promise of financial recovery. But, why did it incur more than Rs 20,000 crore loan in the past 12 years,” asked the Opposition members. “We incurred low-cost loan to reduce the debt burden by repaying the loan availed by the previous government with high interest rate,” quipped Patro.

He said the Odisha government had not availed loan from the open market since 2006-07. “We are availing low-cost loan of limited quantity from the National Small Savings Organisation. We are trying to restrict fiscal deficit by creating revenue surplus,” said the minister.

He said the loan — gross state domestic product ratio — had come down from 48.45 per cent in 2000-01 to 20.07 per cent in 2010-11.

“The Odisha government has been claiming that it has achieved revenue surplus. Then why is it incurring loans,” questioned Congress member Anup Sai.

“Availing loan is nothing wrong in a welfare state. We have availed the loan for carrying out development and welfare activities,” said the revenue minister. He said the Odisha government had been spending more on loan repayment than the target since 2007-08. “We have repaid Rs 937 crore loan more than the target. Similarly, we have spent Rs 898 crore more this year towards loan repayment,” said Patro.

Congress leader and former minister Dambarudhar Ulaka said there was no reason for the Odisha government taking credit for revenue surplus since it had stopped recruitment.

He said the previous Congress government had to incur loan as it had declared the primary school teachers as government employees.

Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh said that at present, more than 1.57 lakh regular posts were lying vacant in various government departments and establishments because of recruitment freeze. However, the minister evaded the query.