Odisha Assembly adjourned after uproar over Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh

BHUBANESWAR: Within minutes of its commencement, Odisha Assembly was today adjourned till afternoon after uproar by ruling BJD members against Centre's stand on the controversial Polavaram project in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

As soon as the House met for the day, treasury bench members waved banners and raised slogans against the Centre on the Polavaram issue.

The ruling party members also alleged that both Congress and BJP were against the interest of the state. They accused both Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA governments of ignoring Odisha during cyclone 'Phailin' in 2013 and cyclone 'Hudhud' in 2014.

Opposition Congress and BJP members, who were all set to participate in the Question Hour, were surprised over Speaker Niranjan Pujari's announcement within minutes after the House assembled this morning that the House was being adjourned till 3 PM.

"The ruling party is running away from discussion and therefore it forced adjournment of the House. I have never seen treasury bench members stalling the proceedings," Leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra of Congress said outside the Assembly.

Mishra said Congress had given a notice for debate on unemployment issue in the state. This apart, Congress had moved a motion on "Chitfund scam resulting in cheating of 20,000 families and involvement of the ruling party."

BJD spokesman Samir Ranjan Das said outside the Assembly that government was ready to discuss any issue in the House.

Mishra, however, accused the ruling party of acting differently. He said right from the beginning of the session, the ruling party members had been disrupting the proceedings on some plea or the other.