Odisha Assembly sees ruckus over girls’ detention
Bhubaneswar, Dec 4: The Odisha assembly on Friday witnessed pandemonium with the opposition demanding that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik take responsibility for alleged detention of some students of Rama Devi Women’s University during his visit to the institution.
Uproarious scenes forced Speaker Niranjan Pujari to adjourn the house till Saturday.
As soon as the question hour began, Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati and other members of the party rushed to the well of tghe house, waving a newspaper carrying a report about the locking up of some students during the chief minister’s visit to the city-based university.
Police locked up 10 female students in a room because they anticipated disturbance during Patnaik’s visit on Thursday to “inaugurate” the state’s first women’s university, Bahinipati said.
Demanding unconditional apology from the chief minister, the Congress members created ruckus while Bahinipati attempted to climb on to the speaker’s podium and grab his mike.
Speaker Niranjan Pujari adjourned the house till 12 noon after failing to pacify the Congress members.
Upon reassembling at noon, the house saw more noisy scenes, forcing the speaker to call for another adjournment till 3 p.m. The Bharatiya Janata Party members also joined the opposition’s protests.
The house was finally adjourned till Saturday as the noisy chaos persisted. Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said the chief minister should come to the house and apologise for being responsible for the illegal confininment of the girls in their own college. The girls’ right to speech and right to liberty had been violated, he said.
“This action of the police clearly violated the basic human rights and constitutional rights of girls. The Chief Minister should apologise and make clear what action has been taken against the responsible persons,” said Mishra.
BJP legislator Radharani Panda described the police action as inhuman and sought the reply from the chief minister.
The ruling BJD legislators contradicted the opposition account of the events, saying the girls were never locked up in a room.
“No girl was locked or confined to a room. The students were asked to come to the university in their uniform along with their identity cards. Those who had not come in uniform were not allowed to enter the campus,” said BJD MLA and party’s students’ wing president Byomkesh Ray.
Meanwhile, the students’ and women’s wings of the Congress resorted to road blockade before the university and burnt an effigy of the Chief Minister. BJP Mahila Morcha too protested against the alleged confinement of the girls students. (IANS)