Panel to probe MLAs grouse against officials

BHUBANESWAR: Speaker Pradip Amat on Tuesday said the issue of MLAs not getting due importance from the officials will be looked into by the Ethics Committee of the House.The issue cropped up during zero hour with members, cutting across party lines, alleging that officials at the district level always undermine the importance of the MLAs. Raising the issue, Pradip Maharathy (BJD) said though a minister attended the Utkal Divas celebrations at Puri on April 1, the Collector skipped the function. Besides, the MLAs were not even given invitation cards, he said. Maharathy said this was not a lone case. “The MLAs are never invited to many such functions by the district administrations,” he said, demanding that the matter be referred to the Ethics Committee.Stating that the MLAs should not be humiliated by the officials in their constituencies, his party colleague Debasis Nayak said there was a need to put a stop on such practice.Rabi Mallick (BJD) alleged that he had to wait for more than two hours to meet the Collector even though he met other people in between. Prafulla Majhi (Cong) demanded a ruling by the Speaker.Several other members, Ramesh Chandra Chau Patnaik, Damodar Rout, Anant Das (all BJD), Amar Prasad Satpathy (NCP), Rajendra Sahu (Ind), Surendra Prasad Pramanik, Anup Sai and Prasad Harichandan (all Cong) expressed concern over the matter.