Opposition Congress on Friday demanded the resignation of state Tourism and Culture minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi alleging that he had taken two women as his personal guests to attend an event in Hyderabad at the expense of the government.
"A minister of Naveen Patnaik government misused his position and power. He took two of his female friends on an official trip. Instead of answering our questions, they shut the House down before time. Just to save the minister the Assembly was adjourned 17 days before the approved schedule of the House," said Odisha Congress spokesperson Satya Prakash Nayak.
"We raised the issue in the House. He made his female friends stay with him at the same hotel which was funded by the government. He used government resources for his personal use. We demand immediate dismissal of the minister from his post," he added.
Odisha Assembly was adjourned on Thursday after Opposition Congress MLAs stormed into the well of the House seeking the minister's resignation.
"It is very sad that the Assembly has been adjourned. Why he took them at the expense of the government has still not been clarified," said Santosh Singh Saluja, a Congress leader on Thursday.
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