Privilege Notice Against Odisha Parliamentary Affairs Minister For Misleading Assembly
13 March, Bhubaneswar (odibizinfo)
Congress member Debendra Sharma Friday moved a privilege notice in the Odisha Assembly against Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh for misleading the House on Namtara Police firing incident.
Sharma said Arukh deserve to be punished since he had intentionally misled the House, committed breach of the privilege of the Assembly .
The minister while replying to the admissibility of an adjournment motion on Namtara firing incident moved by the Opposition on March 11, had said that police resorted to blank firing on March 8 to disperse the crowd.
He had stated that nine people were injured and undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack and none of them have received serious injuries.
Sharma said the minister had deliberately tried to mislead the House.He said a vernacular daily in its Bhubaneswar edition today carried a story stating that six persons have sustained bullet injuries and three others were grievously wounded after being assaulted by lathi.
The newspaper report, the Congress MLA said, said thepolice resorted to indiscriminate firing to disperse the crowd. He said the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, who was making the statement on behalf of the Chief Minister, also misled the House by stating that the CM was absent on March11 and was engaged in official business in New Delhi.
However, the Chief Minister’s tour programme clearly negated the statement. His party colleagues Tara Prasad Bahinipati and Dr.Prafulla Majhi supported him.
Condemning the incident, Opposition chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati said the minister had misled the House and demanded the Speaker give a ruling on what action should betaken against him.
He also demanded the Speaker assure the House that such incident would not happen in future. Dr Majhi described the incident as unfortunate.
He said while Arukh was replying on behalf of the chief minister he should make sure that the statement he was making was based on truth. After listening to the members, the Speaker reserved his ruling.