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Girls ‘locked’ in Odisha college during CM’s visit, Cong protests

The Odisha Assembly on Friday witnessed repeated adjournments with the opposition Congress demanding unconditional apology from chief minister Naveen Patnaik over alleged locking of some female students during his visit to a city college.

Updated on: Dec 4, 2015, 16:31:32 IST
PTI | By , Bhubaneswar
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The Odisha Assembly on Friday witnessed repeated adjournments with the opposition Congress demanding unconditional apology from chief minister Naveen Patnaik over alleged locking of some female students during his visit to a city college.

File photo of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. (Ajay Aggarwal/HT Photo)
File photo of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. (Ajay Aggarwal/HT Photo)

The issue was raised by Congress chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati as soon as the House assembled for the question hour.

Showing newspaper clippings, Bahinipati alleged that around 10 students of the Maa Rama Devi University were locked up in a room by the police, anticipating disturbance during Patnaik’s campus visit for inaguration of the state’s first women’s university on Thursday.

While demanding unconditional apology from the chief minister -- also the home minister -- Congress members, led by Bahinipati, attempted to climb on the speaker’s podium and grab his mike.

The speaker Niranjan Pujari then adjourned the House till 12 noon.

As soon as the House reassembled, Congress lawmakers created furore again, prompting the speaker to adjourn it again till 3pm.

Leader of the opposition Narasingha Mishra (Congress) said, “I demand that the chief minister should come to the House and beg apology for illegally confining girls in their own college. This action of police clearly violated the basic human rights and constitutional rights of girls.”

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