Bhubaneswar: Moments after Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made a statement on the floor of the House, Opposition BJP and Congress lashed out at the government calling it a 'babudom' government.

Reacting to the statement, senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra said that the state government was scared when questions were being asked about the 5T secretary. He criticised the government in Odisha calling it a 'Babudom'.

"A babudom government is ruling the state. The democracy is neither in Odisha nor in the Centre. Whoever is raising a voice against it, is facing the consequences. Action is being taken out of political vendetta. The government has suppressed the voice of the media and taken away its freedom. The state government has become so intolerant that it has crossed all limits." Mishra told mediapersons.

On CM's praise for the NDA government at Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, "We saw the CM rating Modi the government an 8 out of 10. But today, his party is raising NHAI issue in the House. This indicates a mock fight outside the House to fool people."

He said that the government rejected adjournment motion in the House without any reason. When asked about 5T, the government is avoiding replying. The CM might be feeling helpless, so he is sending his secretary to cover all constituencies for election campaign.

"If such a large number of grievances have been redressed, why the protestors hit the streets in Bhubaneswar? Why did not the 5T Secretary redress their grievances in their constituencies? It indicates that he was not visiting the districts for redressal of people's grievances, rather he was offering money to outfits to garner votes," Mishra alleged.

BJP Chief Whip Mohan Charan Majhi condemned the way CM Patnaik made his statement in the House.

"The adjournment motion was scheduled in the House today. However, the Speaker rejected it. The CM made Suo moto statement in the House. He could have replied to questions during the adjournment motion. Why did the government avoid the adjournment motion? During the period, we were to ask questions and he would have given replies. We had not sought a statement in the House. He did it out of fear during ruckus in the House," the BJP leader said.

"We had asked him the question whether a secretary is powerful or a minister. But what did he do? He told about expenses made for people's grievance redressal exercises only to protect the secretary. It was our right to know complete expenditure incurred during visit of the CMO officials to various districts, whether there was budgetary allocation for the expenses," he said.

When asked about the CM's statement on 5T Secretary's complete expenditure during his visits in past three and half years, Majhi said, "Only one meeting costs Rs 20-25 crore. But the CM said that Rs 40 crore has been spent during last three years. This is a joke. Around Rs 600 crore has been spent for 5T Secretary's visit, the expenditure is more than of Chandrayaan project cost. Such huge expenditure never incurred during CM's visit. The way the 5T Secretary was given permission to visit districts and spend huge amount, was undemocratic."