Ministers absence cause commotion in Orissa Assembly

Bhubaneswar, Nov 16 (UNI) The absence of ministers and officials during debate in the House caused much commotion in the Orissa Assembly today.

When the House was taking up special mention of the members during Zero hour, Opposition members drew Speaker Maheswar Mohanty's attention that not a single minister was present in the House.

This caused much embarrassment to the treasury bench members and some of them were seen rushing into the lobby to ask the minister to come to the House.

Incidentally, the government Chief Whip and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister were also absent in the House.

A few minutes later State Finance Minister P C Ghadei was seen entering the House to occupy his seat followed by state Agriculture Minister S N Nayak, Panchayat Raj Minister Raghunath Mohanty and Chief Whip Kishore Mohanty.

The House again witnessed furore when ruling BJD member Pradeep Maharathi pointed out that no officers were present in the officer's gallery during the adjournment motion on the distress sale of paddy and other commodities.

The Opposition joined Mr Maharathi to criticise the officers for showing no respect to the House and urged the Speaker to direct the government to ensure their presence during debate.

The Speaker then directed the Agriculture Minister S N Nayak to ask the officers of his department to be present in the House during the debate.

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