Winter session of Orissa Assembly set to be stormy one

BHUBANESWAR: The winter session of the Orissa Legislative Assembly, which begins here on Wednesday, is all set to be a stormy one as the Congress and BJP – the two major opposition forces – are flexing their weakened muscles to embarrass the Naveen Patnaik government on the floor of the House on twin issues of mining scams and farmer suicide cases.

The leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said the congress would raise issues such large number of farmer suicide cases, mining scams and non-availability of emergency package to farmers.

“The third term of Naveen has seen massive corruption. After detection of illegal exploitation and transport of minerals, the state government can no longer hide its face. We had raised this issue in the last Assembly sessions and successfully put pressure on the government to act. Again, we are going to rake up such issues to take the battle to a logical end,” Mr Singh said.

At least 20 farmers have so far reportedly ended lives, most of them by consuming pesticide, allegedly due to crop failure and debt burden.

BJP Legislature Party Leader KV, Singhdeo, who was instrumental in bringing into light massive irregularities in mineral exploitation and trading in Joda-Barbil region, has already made it clear that his party would come out with more information during the Assembly session to expose the “real face” of the government.

“The BJP is once again going to play it role of strong opposition force inside the Assembly. Suicide by farmers’ because of the state government’s apathy, non-availability of water to farmers and finally mining scams will be the major issues on which we will seek concrete reply from the government,” Mr Singdeo said.

The ruling BJD on the other hand also did it exercise in the morning how to defend the joint onslaught by the Congress and BJP.

“We know the Congress and BJP are going to raise certain issues in the House. We are prepared to face them and try to clear their doubts and apprehensions,” senior BJD leader and parliamentary affairs minister, Raghunath Mohanty told reporters after the BJD legislature meeting.