Naveen skips Assembly session to attend political rally

By Ratikant Mohanty
Bhubaneswar, Nov. 27: The House is yet to return to normalcy. The Opposition says it has not yet got the right reply from the chief minister Naveen Patnaik on the land acquisition deal for the proposed Vedanta University project.
When all these developments were going on in the state capital, chief minister Naveen Patnaik along with two of his senior Cabinet colleagues on Saturday skipped the winter session of the Assembly to attend a political rally at Hinjili, his assembly constituency in Ganjam district.
This evoked sharp reactions from the from the opposition Congress leaders who alleged that the chief minister was not serious to discuss matters of urgency in the House and, instead, was interested in politicking to outdo the effects of public opinion building up against his government’s “involvement” in fraudulent land grabbing and “illegal” diversion of agriculture water for industrial use.
“This is quite unfortunate that when the Opposition is seeking explanations on the floor of the House from the chief minister for his government’s patronisation to illegal land grabbing bids, Mr Patnaik, instead of remaining present here, is addressing political rallies and laying foundation stones for various projects in his constituency. This is again complete disregard to the members of the House,” Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh told reporters after the House was adjourned as pandemonium prevailed for the fifth consecutive day over land acquisition for the proposed Vedanta University project at Puri.
The chief minister’s home district Ganjam, which is riding high in the crime graph, greeted the president with chilling crime incident. Some unidentified miscreants killed local Sergarh police inspector Manoranjan Mishra by pumping several bullets into his body a few hours before the chief minister arrived in his constituency.
“It would have been great if the chief minister had visited the bereaved family of the slain police inspector to express his sympathy. Instead, he preferred to address political rally. This is quite ridiculous,” said senior Congress leader Santosh Singh Saluja.
The BJD sought to clarify that the chief minister’s visit to his constituency was not aimed at skipping the Assembly session.
“This was a pre-scheduled meeting. There is no politics in it,” a senior BJD leader, who did not want to be quoted, said.
The two other Cabinet ministers who shared dais with the chief minister in the political rally include revenue and disaster management minister Suryanaryan Patra and rural development minister Bikram Keshari Arukh.