Opposition to apprise Governor on Orissa Assembly deadlock

Bhubaneswar, Mar 27 (UNI) The Opposition in the Orissa Assembly will submit a memorandum to Governor M C Bhandare tomorrow to apprise him of all aspects of the incident leading to a deadlock in the House, Leader of Opposition J B Pattnaik said.

The decision to submit the memorandum was taken at an emergency meeting of the Opposition political parties here this evening.

Mr Pattnaik said the Opposition would urge the Governor to ensure that ''the House runs as per the rules of the business and the dignity of the House and democracy is maintained''.

He alleged that the House was not being conducted according to the rules of business and the ruling party members were trying to run the House on their whims, violating all norms.

The way the ruling party members tried to run the House by force was ''laughable and highly deplorable'', Mr Pattnaik remarked.

The Leader of the Opposition described the business of the House conducted by the Chairman standing in the podium as totally illegal and violation of the rules of the business of the House.

He said they demanded an impartial inquiry into the allegation of sexual harassment made by a woman employee against the Speaker and also the Speaker's allegation that it was a conspiracy against him, and some eminent persons were behind the incident.

He said the House Committee, as suggested by the Speaker, could not inquire into the allegation impartially as per the rules of business. The members of the Committee would be appointed by the Speaker and majority of the ruling party members would be nominated by the Speaker to the Committee.

Mr Patnaik said the Chief Minister's argument that allegations relating to Speaker would only be considered by the House was not justified and demanded a CBI probe into the incident He said the Opposition took this stand during the discussion with the Chief Minister but he tried to protect the Speaker and did not agree to the Opposition's proposal.

Mr Patnaik said, '' We stand by our demand '' and keeping in view the dignity of the House as well as the Speaker, the Opposition resolved not to allow any business in the House till the demands were considered.

On the allegations of Treasury bench members that the Opposition members misbehaved with some women members and passed unparliamentary comments on them, he said the allegations were aimed at diverting the main issue.

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