The snake forced a house adjournment and over 30 officials were still looking for it till filing of report.
They pressed the panic button twice in Orissa’s corridors of power on Thursday, first when a fire was detected in the secretariat and later when a cobra was found near Naveen Patnaik’s chair in the assembly. The secretariat fire was controlled early, but the snake forced a house adjournment and over 30 officials were still looking for it till filing of report.
A sweeper spotted a yellow-coloured cobra dancing on the floor of the House at 8 am. He immediately called another security official. Both tried to shoo it away, but fled when the snake tried to come after them.
Sweeper Bhisma Nayak said, “I had gone to clean the house like on any other day when I noticed a snake dancing on the red carpet. When we tried to chase it away, it moved towards the chief minister’s chair,” he said. The two tried once more but the snake tried to come after them.
As the panic spread, snake-charmers, sniffer dogs, House marshals and forest and fire officials were called in. Even Snake Helpline was sounded.
But by then the snake had hid somewhere. The officials could not locate it even after seven hours. They even used carbolic acid to force the cobra out. But it almost looked like the reptile had vanished.
Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat adjourned the House repeatedly to enable the search operation to go on. The building was sealed.
To ward off fears from the minds of the MLAs, especially the new ones, chief minister Naveen Patnaik arranged a trip for them. State tourism minister Debi Prasad Mishra took nearly 40 MLAs on a tour of a newly-created medicinal park in Old Bhubaneswar.
Not everybody was amused, though. Opposition MLAs smelt a rat. “There were two important issues to be taken up for discussion today, one relating to the mining scam and anther relating to home. The government might have spread a rumour to avoid the discussion,” Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja said. He, however, felt all steps should be taken to flush out the snake. The chief minister said, “I do hope normalcy is restored soon and all important issues are discussed.”
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