Bhubaneswar: Holding the BJD government responsible for the killing of ruling party MLA Jagabandhu Majhi, opposition parties on Sunday said the incident exposed complete collapse of law and order and inadequate security provided to legislators in Maoist-hit areas. "The state government is responsible for the gunning down of the BJD MLA. It shows utter failure on part of the chief minister, also in-charge of home department," Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Bhupinder Singh said. Accusing the BJD government of being indifferent to security needs, the Congress leader said the common people felt unsafe when a legislator of ruling party was shot dead at a public meeting held in a highly sensitive Naxal-hit area.
State BJP President Jual Oram said, "The state government is fully responsible for the killing of Jagabandhu Majhi and his personal security officer. It never gave proper attention to security requirements of people in Maoist-affected areas."
Both Oram and Singh were of the view that law and order machinery had completely collapsed under Naveen Patnaik`s regime making people highly insecure.
Slamming the state government for the incident, senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra said the unprecedented killing of an MLA at a public event had exposed as to how ineffective the police administration was. "It shows law and order machinery has collapsed due to lack of proper policy," he said.
CPI`s state Secretary Dibakar Nayak said, "How can a government which failed to protect an elected representative provide security to common people."
Congress MP from Nawarangpur, Pradeep Majhi said the security cover provided to the slain MLA was grossly inadequate despite the fact that he had faced attacks earlier in the Maoist-hit region.
PTI