Odisha Assembly adopts motion to prune working days

Congress, BJP flay motion, call it 'undemocratic' and a ploy by govt to evade debate on chit fund scam

The state assembly today adopted a motion to prune the number of working days in a calendar year at a time when the ongoing session has been marred by pandemonium and blame game between the Opposition and treasury benches.

The speaker Niranjan Pujari today approved the suggestion of the Rule Committee of the assembly to scale down the mandatory working days of the house fixed at 60 earlier, much to the chagrin of the Opposition MLAs.

Though the Rules Committee has recommended that the number of sitting days can be reduced from 60, it has not specified the number of days that can be reduced.

The motion for reducing the sitting days of the assembly was moved by government chief whip Ananta Das as per the recommendations of the Rules Committee. The motion was approved during the post lunch session.

Though it has been mandated since 2005 that the assembly would sit for at least 60 days in a calendar year, the house has functioned for the prescribed period only in 2006, 2010 and 2012.

The motion drew flak from both Congress and BJP who termed it ‘undemocratic’ and alleged that the government was bent on curtailing the session since it was scared of a debate on the chit fund scam.

“I differ with the decision of the Rules Committee in respect of amendments proposed by its 13 members which was laid in the house,” said Congress MLA, Anshuman Mohanty, the sole member from the Opposition in the committee.

BJP MLA, Pradip Purohit said, “The government has deliberately adopted the motion to avoid discussions on issues where it will face huge embarrassment. We demand that there should be no change in the number of days in the sitting of the assembly.”

The assembly today started on a noisy note on the 13th day with the Opposition breathing down the government's neck on the chit fund scandal and non-introduction of Bills in Odia language. As the Opposition and ruling party members traded charges, the question hour could run for barely five minutes. The house was first adjourned till 11:30 am and later till 3 pm.

Amid din, the state assembly passed the Odisha Open University (OSOU) Bill. The state government has earmarked Rs 35 crore for the open university at Sambalpur. Land for the university campus would be provided free of cost and admissions are slated to begin from the 2015-16 session.

The Bill was moved by higher education minister Pradip Panigrahy. The minister said the Bill would help improve the country's gross enrolment ratio that currently stands at 16 per cent compared to the pan-India average of 19 per cent.

According to provisions of the OSOU Bill, other universities in state which want to continue their distance education programmes have to develop their own study centres. They have to stop franchisee system within three years of commencement of OSOU Act.