Bhubaneswar, September 23: The Odisha Assembly on Tuesday adjourned till 4 PM as opposition BJD MLAs held protests in the House against the BJP Government’s decision to empower BDOs by undermining the three-tier panchayat functionaries in the State.
As soon as the House assembled for Question Hour at 10.30 AM, BJD MLAs, holding placards, trooped into the well of the House and raised anti-BJP slogans to register their protest.
The BJD members demanded that the State Government roll back the recent State Cabinet decision to raise the financial powers of Block Development Officers (BDOs) and engineers.
Despite the requests of Speaker Surama Padhy to agitating the members to participate in the House proceedings, the latter did not listen and continued the protest.
Unable to run the House that could function for only 20 minutes, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings till 4 PM.
This marked the fifth consecutive day of adjournment of the State Assembly since the start of the Monsoon Session on September 18.
The BJD has been strongly opposing the State Government’s decision to increase the powers of the Block Development Officers (BDOs) to pass bills up to Rs 10 lakh without counter signature by the panchayat samiti chairpersons.
The Naveen Patnaik-led BJD is accusing the Mohan Charan Majhi Government of systematically weakening Odisha’s three-tier Panchayati Raj system and undermining constitutional provisions meant to protect grassroots democracy.
