Ruling BJD members lock horn in Odisha Assembly

Bhubaneswar, March 16: In an embarrassment for the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, two party heavyweights exchanged heated words in state Assembly to the amusement of the Opposition members.

The war of words took place during Question Hour when former Revenue Minister and senior BJD member Surya Narayan Patro asked Cooperation Minister Damodar Rout about the action taken against an officer who had disobeyed his direction.

Rout had recently said outside the Assembly that the registrar of the cooperative societies was not obeying his order for which work on the cold storages could not be taken up.

"If the registrar of cooperative societies is disobeying the minister, have you taken the matter to the notice of the chief minister and the chief secretary," Patro asked.

Patro also asked why Rout had not initiated departmental proceedings against the official. In his reply, Rout attacked the former minister saying "an urban cooperative bank was established in Chhatrapur in 1915.

It was liquidated in 2015 when he (Patro) was the district chief of the party. So, he is not thinking about his inefficiency; rather, he is trying to embarrass me by raising my comment before the media," Rout said in the House. "I understood your intention.

But I would not allow anybody to fulfil any evil motive," Rout said. Patro, however, clarified outside the House that his intention was only to raise questions. "I have no motive to embarrass the minister, but only to get some information," he said.

PTI