Bhubaneswar, Mar 22: With yet another gangrape incident reported, Odisha Assembly was stalled yesterday amid frequent adjournments as opposition Congress members stormed into well accusing the state government of failing to control rising crime against women.
Angry over repeated rape incidents and rise in crime against women, the Congress MLAs trooped into the well as soon as the House assembled for the day and attempted to climb on the speakers podium.
Besides the alleged gangrape case in Kendrapara, the slogan shouting opposition members also raised the issue of sexual harassment of girls at a school in Balasore district.
Unable to bring normalcy, Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat adjoured the house first till 12.45 am and later till 3 pm. Normalcy, however, returned in the house after 3 pm.
"We have been demanding statement of Chief Minister over the series of crimes against women but Naveen Patnaik, who is also the home minister, has been avoiding making any statement in the house," leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh of Congress told reporters outside the assembly.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kalpataru Das said the opposition can again raise the issue durng demand discussion of the home department," Das said.
The gangrape at Patkura area of Kendrapara district came to the fore a day after the House expressed concern over a series of shuch incidents including the alleged gangrape of a minor girl at Malkangiri and gangrape and burning of a 17-year-old dalit girl at Gandia in Dhenkanal district.
The opposition members also raised the issue relating to the sexual harrassment of school girls in Balasore.
Yesterday was third consecutive day when opposition raised crime against women issue in the State Assembly. Earlier, the House was stalled for two days on March 15 and 16 over alleged dowry torture by ex-BJD minister Raghunath Mohanty and his family members.
