Four Odisha ministers have more than one govt quarters

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Nov 26:

Parliamentary Affairs minister Bikram Keshari Arukh on Tuesday admitted in the Odisha Assembly that four ministers including him have more than one government quarters under their possession.

Raising the issue in the House, BJP member Dilip Ray had sought a reply from the minister to disclose the name the former ministers, speaker, deputy speaker and government chief whip who are yet to surrender the government quarters. Besides, he also urged the minister to name the present ministers having more than one government quarters in their name.

In reply, Arukh said the former MLAs Prafulla Ghadai, Sharada Nayak, Raghunath Mohanty, Anjali Behera, Arabinda Dhali and Anjali Behera are yet to vacate the government quarters.

Besides, former minister Sarojini Hembram, has also occupied the government quarter despite being elected to Rajya Sabha, the minister said.

Apart from this, he along with three other present ministers—Law minster Arun Sahu, Higher Education minister Pradip Kumar Panigrahi and MSME minister Jogendra Behera—have occupied two government quarters, he informed the House.

Among others who have still occupied government quarters are, former Speaker and chairman of Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) Kishore Mohanty, BJD MLA Bed Prakash Agrawal, Pratap Jena, Padmanav Behera, Subrat Tarai, Pramila Mallick, Prafulla Samal, Sanjib Kumar Sahu and Pravin Kumar Bhanjadeo, he added.