Orissa Speaker dubs SEC action ''unilateral, amounts to privilege''

Bhubaneswar, Feb 14: Orissa Assembly Speaker Maheswar Mohanty today described State Election Commission S C Hota's order to file formal complaint against him for violation of code of conduct as ''unilateral and amounts to privilege''.

The SEC has taken a unilateral decision when his order for a crime branch inquiry was pending investigation, Mr Mohanty told UNI over phone from Puri.

The Speaker said if any case was registered against him on the direction of the SEC, it would become a matter of privilege.

Official sources said an FIR had been lodged against the Speaker under section 188 of IPC in the Chandanpur police station last night on the direction of the SEC.

Mr Hota had asked the Puri District Collector to file a formal complaint against the speaker for violation of code of conduct for the ongoing Panchayat elections in the state.

The Speaker had taken strong exception to the SEC order directing the district magistrate to file a complaint against him and questioned on what basis he had pass such an order.

On Monday, Mr Mohanty said the SEC ordered for a Crime Branch inquiry into the incident and next day, he wanted an FIR to be filed against him in the police station.

The Speaker is already in the eye of controversy after the Chandanpur Police seized one Assembly vehicle on February six last carrying election materials for the ruling Biju Janata Dal(BJD). The police had to seize the vehicle as the local Congress leaders made it a big issue demanding immediate action against the Speaker for violating the code of conduct by using his office and vehicle for election purposes of the BJD.

Pradesh Congress Committee President Jayadev Jena has demanded Mr Mohanty's resignation from the office following the direction of the SEC to lodge FIR for violation of code of conduct.

He told newspersons here that such an incident has lowered the dignity of the Assembly and the Speaker must step down from the constitutional post. PCC Secretary and former MLA Uma Ballav Rath has even submitted a memorandum to Governor Rameswar Thakur urging him to intervene into the matter and ask the Speaker to relinquish his office on moral ground.

The Speaker, when asked, said the vehicle seized by the police was not his vehicle and he was not sitting in that vehicle. The driver, he said, had already lodged the first complaint followed by one of the Congress leader and then the sub-collector.

He said the Secretary to the SEC had written a letter in this regard and he had asked the Assembly Secretary to probe into the incident.

Mr Mohanty apprehended that the SEC had initiated action against him as he had allowed a discussion in the house in the past on an alleged land scam involving some influential persons in the state.

UNI