Bhubaneswar: Uproar over irregular convening of meetings of the Tribes Advisory Council, a statutory body, forced a series of adjournments of Odisha Assembly proceedings on Saturday.

Dissatisfied with the Odisha government's reply, agitated Congress members stormed the Well of the House during the Question Hour, shouting slogans. Even leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra demanded an apology from the government for the irregular conduct of the council meetings and an assurance that the meetings would henceforth be convened at regular intervals.

BJP members later joined their Congress counterparts in the Well, supporting the demand.

The 20-member Tribes Advisory Council, formed under Schedule V of the Constitution, has 15 tribal members sent by the Odisha Assembly. The council is supposed to discuss about the welfare measures for the tribal community of the state and advise the state government in this regard.

Odisha, which has 22 per cent tribal population, has as many as 62 tribes, including 13 vulnerable and 13 primitive ones.

The council is supposed to meet twice a year. However, it has met only 15 times instead of 34 during the past 17 years of the BJD rule. The council, headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, did not even meet in 2003, 2008, 2014, 2016 and 2017 during the same period, pointed out Congress MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria seeking reasons for such lapses.

"The council meetings could not be held at different times because of unavoidable reasons such as enforcement of the model code of conduct in view of Assembly, Lok Sabha and local body elections, delay in reconstitution of the council after the expiry of its term," said ST and SC development minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi.

However, the Congress members were not content with the minister's reply and trooped into the Well shouting: "Regular Tribes Advisory Council meetings is our demand."

Stating that the minister's reply reflected the Odisha government's sincerity towards tribal development, leader of Opposition Mishra said: "We demand an unconditional apology from the government with an assurance to conduct the council meeting twice a year beginning from the next month."

Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat had to adjourn the proceedings till afternoon because of the uproarious scenes. However, the House functioned normally in the afternoon and discussed about the appropriation bill for the 2018-19 financial year.