Bhubaneswar, March 19 The Odisha Assembly was adjourned three times on Thursday as the opposition disrupted the proceedings, demanding the resignation of State Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling over the deaths of 12 patients at a state-run hospital in Cuttack.
The House saw multiple adjournments during the day, initially until 11:30 am and then again until 1 pm. Speaker Surama Padhy had convened a meeting of all parties to address the impasse. However, it failed to resolve the situation. The disruption continued when the House reconvened, leading to its adjournment until 4 pm.
As the Question Hour began in the morning, members of the opposition BJD and Congress stormed into the well of the House, waving placards and shouting slogans, while some attempted to climb the Speaker's podium. Opposition MLAs criticized the BJP government by chanting "Ram naam satya hai" and slogans "Mohan Majhi Hai Hai", targeting the chief minister.
Speaker Surama Padhy could only continue the Question Hour for about eight minutes amid the chaos, after which she adjourned the proceedings until 11:30 am.
The uproar continued even when the House reassembled at 11:30 am, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings until 1 pm. Padhy convened a meeting of all parties to resolve the impasse, but that remained inconclusive.
Outside the House, BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik said, "The minister must resign as over 10 people have died in the devastating fire at the ICU of SCB Medical College, a government-run premier medical facility."
Targeting the BJP government, she pointed out that a fire incident had occurred during the BJD's rule, and the then health minister, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, was asked to resign on moral grounds. "Where is the morality of the BJP government? The government cannot absolve itself of responsibility by ordering a judicial inquiry or suspending four junior-level officers," she said.
Mallik also demanded stringent action against the hospital superintendent and top officials "for their negligence that led to the loss of lives".
BJP member Irasis Acharya strongly criticized the opposition for disrupting the proceedings, while pointing out that the state government has already taken punitive steps in the matter.
"The government has suspended four officials, launched an investigation by a fact-finding team, and also ordered a judicial probe into the matter. There is no point in stalling the House," he said.
The fire at the Trauma Care ICU of the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack on March 16, which killed 12 people and left 11 injured, has sparked outrage across the state.