Uproar over Ministers remarks

BHUBANESWAR: The House on Monday witnessed noisy scenes during the question hour over ‘some objectionable remarks’ made by Revenue Minister Surya Narayan Patro against leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh.Congress, BJP and NCP members objected to the remarks and said this was not good for democracy. Congress members trooped into the well of the House shouting slogans and demanded withdrawal of remarks. The members returned to their seats only after Speaker Pradip Amat assured them that he would examine the proceedings and expunge the remarks. The unsavoury incident occurred when the Revenue Minister was replying to a question relating railway overbridges of the Works Department which is under Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The Chief Minister was all along present in the House when Patro was answering as his proxy.Singh said a minister can proxy another  only if the latter is absent or outside the House for some reason. He said the minister is not able to reply to the supplementaries raised by the members properly. This led to the statement from Patro which was later expunged by the Speaker from the records. BJP Legislature Party leader KV Singhdeo said the damage had already been done as the entire incident was telecast. There is no point in expunging the remarks after that, he said and requested the minister to withdraw the remarks.Amar Prasad Satpathy (NCP) said the manner in which the minister made the remark was not correct. A minister should always try to give satisfactory answer to questions and supplementaries from the members, he added.Describing this as unfortunate, Opposition chief whip Prasad Harichandan said the Speaker should immediately take a decision on the matter. Damodar Rout (BJD) also demanded withdrawal of the remarks. There is nothing to be examined as everybody has heard what the minister had remarked, he said.Santosh Singh Saluja (Cong), however, struck a discordant note by saying that the leader of the Opposition has himself lowered his dignity by speaking on all issues which is not correct.The minister said that a proxy replying for the Chief Minister is not without precedent.