The Odisha Legislative Assembly remained paralysed on Monday as BJD and Congress opposition members disrupted proceedings for the fourth consecutive day, demanding the resignation of Health and Family Welfare Minister Mukesh Mahaling following the tragic fire at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack on March 16.
Since the incident, the House has seen continuous uproar. Question Hour, Zero Hour and discussions on demands for grants could not be conducted as opposition MLAs raised slogans and entered the well of the House. The government had directed an inquiry and taken preliminary action by suspending four fire service officers. It later transferred the hospital Superintendent and Dean and constituted two inquiry committees. Yet the opposition remains adamant, accusing the administration of shielding senior officials while punishing only junior staff.
Speaker Surama Padhy convened an all-party meeting to restore normalcy, but it ended without any resolution. The House was adjourned multiple times—first from 10:44 am to 11:30 am and later till 4 pm—after repeated disruptions by BJD MLAs Romesh Ranjan Biswal and Dhruba Sahu, along with Congress members.
Outside the House, BJD MLA Byomakesh Ray alleged that the government was deliberately stalling proceedings to hide its shortcomings. His colleague Sarada Jena said the ruling party was following a “maar maar bhandari ku maar” (kill the messenger) policy. “They claim to be a people’s government but are only punishing lower-level employees. We demand the arrest of the Superintendent. Until proper action is taken against the guilty, the House will remain disrupted,” she asserted.
BJP MLA Tankadhar Tripathy hit back, accusing BJD and Congress of politicising an unfortunate tragedy to divert attention from their internal crises, especially after poor performance in the Rajya Sabha elections and alleged horse-trading within BJD. “Two committees have been formed, and action has been taken at the ground level. Further measures will follow the inquiry reports. The BJP government is responsible and committed to preventing such incidents in future,” he said. He also blamed the previous BJD regime under Naveen Patnaik for the lapses at SCB, which had once promised to make the hospital a world-class facility.
The stalemate is expected to continue in the coming days.
