The Budget Session of the Orissa Legislative Assembly, as expected, on Monday began on acrimonious note with the major Opposition party Congress boycotting the governor’s speech protesting the Naveen Patnaik government’s “apathy” to punish the “real culprits” in the `700 crores dal scam and removing the “tainted” ministers from the council of ministers.
As soon as the governor started to address the House, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh stood up and said: “Since the governor’s address chronicled fabricated facts on the state government’s success the Congress could not be a part of it.” He then led his party’s walkout.
The BJP, which is the second major Opposition force in the House created a scene in the House as its members rushed to well of the House demanding CBI probe into the dal scam.
To register their protest, the BJP members — who had come with packets of rotten dal supplied to school children under midday-meal (MDM) scheme — threw the commodity at the reporters’ table.
Speaker Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare, amidst the pandemonium, continued to read out the 48-page speech.