House in splits over Rout-Patra spat

Bhubaneswar: Cooperation minister Damodar Rout and senior BJD leader Surya Narayan Patro on Wednesday got into a verbal duel in the assembly, exposing the internal infighting within the party.
The war of words over efficiency between two senior treasury bench members provided fodder for gossip to the entire house and resulted in MLAs bursting out laughing during the crucial Question Hour discussion on farmers' issues.
The argument ensued when the cooperation minister was replying to a question by Jharsuguda Congress MLA Nabakishore Das about condition of cold storages in the state. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik was not present on the occasion.
Participating in the debate, Patra said Rout had recently been cited as saying in the media that the registrar of cooperative societies has not been adhering to his advisories to renovate the defunct cold storages in the state.
Patra said the chief secretary is the custodian of all departments and ministers are policy executors. "If a government official (in this case, the registrar of cooperative societies) is not obeying the minister's order, has he (Rout) brought the matter to the notice of the chief minister or the chief secretary for disciplinary proceedings?" Patra said, receiving a sharp reaction from Rout.
Hitting out at Patra, also a former minister, Rout accused Patra of trying to embarrass him by raising such issues in the assembly.
"Your motive is something different, and I understand it very well. But, I would not allow anybody to fulfil their (ill) intentions. Come to my office chamber, I will show you what action I have initiated," said a furious Rout.
To embarrass Patra, the cooperation minister went on to say that an urban cooperative bank at Chhatrapur in Patro's Ganjam district, which was established in 1915, was liquidated in 2015 due to lack of proper patronage. "So, instead of questioning my efficiency, you should mind your own job," Damodar added.
As the verbal fight turned murkier, speaker Niranjan Pujari intervened and asked the original questioner (Naba Kishore Das) to place his final question.
While replying to media queries later, Rout refused to comment on the verbal duel but indicated that Patro might have spoken out of frustration.
Patro, however, said he had no intention to embarrass anyone. "As a member of the house, I just participated in the discussion, which is not wrong," he told reporters outside the assembly.