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Tsunami & After

Orissa opposition legislators go berserk
by Sarada Lahangir

     Bubhaneswar: Opposition legislators on Wednesday disrupted proceedings in the Orissa State Assembly and damaged the public address system after Speaker Maheswar Mohanti slapped a fine of Rs.60,000 (1334 dollars) on three Congress party members. Nimai Sarkar, Rabindra Mallick and Debasish Patnaik were asked to pay up for damaging microphones during the monsoon session of the legislature. The members brought in several bags of coins into the house on Tuesday and placed it on the table and then remained in the house throughout the night. Violence started when the house assembled this morning and the opposition members demanded a discussion on the issue. They claimed the speaker had ordered force on them instead of acceding to their demands. "The speaker is responsible for whatever has happened in the Assembly. He said "peeto" (beat them), when we sought a discussion on the issue (of slapping a fine for damaging the property of the House)," said Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, leader of Opposition and a former chief minister of the state.

   Speaker Mohanti, however, denied the allegations and said he pleaded with the opposition to resume transaction of house business. "I did not use such a word as beat them. I said if people see such things then they will beat you. Allegations are all baseless," said Mohanti. In the pandemonium that followed, opposition members climbed on to the raised podium of the speaker broke the microphones as the marshals were trying to evacuate them from the house. The state is ruled by a coalition of regional Biju Janta Dal (BJD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headed by Navin Patnaik of BJD. This is not the first time state legislators were engaged in a bedlam in the house. In 1993, 1997 and 1999, the Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu Assemblies were witness to legislators of the treasury and opposition benches engaging in fisticuffs and attacks on the chair. Several members were injured and had to be admitted to hospital for first-aid treatment after these three incidents.