Commission report on Nagarjun vesh stampede untraced-Minister

Bhubaneswar, Nov 14 (UNI) Taking serious exception about the missing of the one-man commission report on the stampede in Jagannath temple in 1993, Orissa Assembly Speaker Maheswar Mohanty today directed the Law Minister to make a statement on the issue.

The Speaker's direction came during a debate on the admissibility of an adjournment motion on the recent stampede in Jagannath Temple in Puri in which four devotees were killed and many injured.

The Opposition members while accusing the Government of handling the stampede issues lightly, wanted to know the fate of the one-man commission report on stampede during ''Nagarjun Vesh'' in the temple in 1993.

Congress member Nalini Mohanty wanted to know what action the government had taken on the recommendation of the commission report.

State Law Minister B B Harichandan, who was replying to the adjournment motion, said the report of Justice J M Mohapatra was not found either in the Law department or Home department.

This caused furore in the house for some time and the legislators cutting across party lines, demanded the commission report to be produced before the Assembly Ruling BJD mla Ranendra Pratap Swain described the statement of the Law Minister as ''dangerous'' and urged the Speaker to order for a probe into the matter. He said the Commission should be requested to handover a copy of the report to the government.

Leader of Opposition J B Pattnaik stood up to say that Justice J M Mohapatra had submitted the report to him and it must be with the Law department. He demanded that the matter be investigated to trace out the report.

A helpless Law Minister said he had gone through the files in the Law department where the Law Secretary had asked for the whereabouts of the Commission report.

At this BJD member Pradip Mahartathi sought a ruling from the Speaker to direct the government to place the Commission report during the current session of the Assembly.

Sensing the concern of the members on the missing report, the Speaker said it was a serious issue and asked the Law Minister to make a statement in the house by tomorrow.

He later amended his ruling and asked the Minister to submit a detailed statement within a week when the later expressed his inability to make a statement tomorrow in view of the complications in locating the report.

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