Din in Odisha Assembly over ‘insult’ to Constitution, mango kernel deaths

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Assembly on Tuesday witnessed ruckus as opposition BJD and Congress raised the issues of alleged insult to the Constitution and death of three tribal women after eating mango kernel gruel respectively, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House twice.

After obituary references were made, Speaker Surama Padhy allowed the Question Hour to begin. However, the BJD and Congress MLAs trooped into the well of the House to protest.

Alleging that two words - 'secular' and 'socialist' – are missing in the replica of the Constitution's which was on display near one of the entry points of the House, BJD members demanded that the government correct this immediately as November 26 is celebrated as the Constitution Day in the country.

Senior MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain of the BJD wanted to speak on the alleged insult to the Constitution, but he was not allowed.

As the din continued in the well of the House, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for the first time till 12.25 pm. When the House reassembled, a similar scene was witnessed forcing Padhy to adjourn the House till 4 pm.

Outside the House, Swain said, "Yesterday, the Supreme Court had rejected PILs to delete 'secular' & 'socialist' words from Constitution's Preamble. And today, the two words are missing in the Constitution displayed in the Assembly".

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas challenging the 1976 amendment to the Constitution adding terms "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" to the preamble. The top court also said that those terms were "integral to the Preamble”.

BJD member Ganeswar Behera said outside the House that the government must immediately display a corrected version of the Preamble on "Constitution Day." BJP leaders were not immediately available for comment.

BJD and Congress members also raised slogans against the Mohan Charan Majhi government accusing it of failing to streamline public distribution system for which the people at Mandipanka village in Kandhamal district faced food scarcity leading to the death of three tribal women.

Earlier, Leader of the House and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi moved an obituary reference and the House paid tribute to six of its ex-members - Samit Dey, Dhaneswar Majhi, Makardwaj Pradhan, Niranjan Pradhan, Utkal Keshari Parida and Purna Chandra Majhi.

The winter session of the Odisha assembly began here on Tuesday and will continue till December 31.