Odisha Assembly could conduct business for only 11 minutes today and was adjourned till Monday due to noisy protests by Congress MLAs demanding resignation of state revenue and disaster management minister S N Patro for allegedly misleading the House.
The Congress members have been demanding Patro's resignation since yesterday accusing him of misleading the House by claiming that the Centre gave only Rs 250 crore for relief and rehabilitation of cyclone Phailin and flood victims against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's announcement of Rs 1,000 crore as advance.
Though Patro corrected himself and informed the House in the afternoon session yesterday that the state had so far received Rs 750 crore from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), Opposition targeted him for misleading the House.
"My office had not received any information regarding receipt of Rs 750 crore from the NDRF, though Centre released the amount. My earlier statement may be corrected," Patro had said.
However, the Opposition refused to accept his clarification and blamed him and the BJD government for launching a campaign against the Centre over Phailin assistance.
