Shortly after Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik's appeal to Maoists to extend deadline for fulfilment of demands for release of abducted Malkangiri district collector and an engineer, Maoist ideologue V V Rao on Friday demanded announcement of release of at least seven persons jailed in stray cases.

"I have asked the state government to make an announcement for release of at least seven persons who have been jailed in unreasonable and stray cases by 6 pm this evening," Rao told PTI over phone.

The government need not immediately release the seven but an announcement should be made by 6 pm, he said.

This would facilitate both extension of the deadline as well as release of Malkangiri district collector R V Krishna and junior engineer Pabitra Majhi, he added.

Rao said he has conveyed the suggestion to the state government during a telephonic conversation with Orissa industries secretary T Ramachandru on the issue.

The Maoist ideologue said he had also named the seven persons - Sriramulu Srinivasulu, Ghantiprasad, Padma (wife of Maoist leader Ramakrishna) and four others.

Orissa CM appeals to Maoists to extend deadline

Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday appealed to the Maoists to extend the deadline set by them for fulfilment of their demands for release of abducted Malkangiri district collector R V Krishna and junior engineer Pabitra Majhi.

"My appeal to the concerned persons is to extend the deadline of this evening and not to cause any harm to the two hostages," Patnaik told reporters in Bhubaneswar.

The chief minister said the government was in the process of trying to establish contact with some persons to discuss and negotiate for the release of Krishna and Majhi.

The government has conceded one of the demands made by the kidnappers by halting combing operations across the state for release of the two, who were abducted on Wednesday evening from Chitrakonda area of Malkangiri.

The Maoists, who had set a 48-hour deadline, also demanded release of all tribals who had been lodged in jails on charges of being ultras.

Pandemonium in Orissa assembly over collector abduction

The Orissa assembly witnessed pandemonium scenes for the second day on Friday over the abduction of Malkangiri district collector R V Krishna with opposition and treasury bench members virtually clashing in the speaker's podium.

The uproar erupted as soon as the house assembled for the day for question hour. As speaker Pradip Kumar Amat asked ministers to reply to questions put by treasury bench members, Oppsition MLAs rushed towards his podium shouting slogans at the top of their voice.

Accusing the BJD government of mishandling the situation arising out of Malkangiri collector abduction incident, a section of Congress MLAs succeded in occupying the speaker's podium despite resistance from marshals while others continued slogan shouting from the well.

With Opposition members occupying the Speaker's podium, the ruling BJD members also rushed there to drive them away. As the treasury bench members and opposition MLAs virtually clashed with each other on the podium, speaker Amat adjourned the house till 3 pm.

Admitting that the ruling party members had also climbed the speaker's podium, senior BJD member and former parliamentary affairs minister Padmanav Behera clarified that they had no intention of creating any unpleasant situation.

"BJD members went to the podium to request the agitating opposition members to return to their seats for facilitating a discussion on the collector abduction incident," Behera said.

Meanwhile, Congress MLAs criticised the state government and the chief minister accusing them of not taking the House into confidence.

"The government announced regarding halt of combing operation outside while the assembly is in session," alleged the leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh. The House was adjourned only after four minutes of business.