Odisha assembly adjourned sine die

Odisha Assembly was today adjourned sine die after passage of six Bills including the Appropriation Bill during the budget session.

The session, which was held in two phases, had 30 working days, Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat said while announcing adjournment of the House sine die.

The House unanimously passed a resolution favouring Special Category State Status for Odisha. A similar resolution was passed in the House in 1997.

The session witnessed an attempt by the opposition Congress to remove Amat from the post of the Speaker accusing him of favouring the ruling BJD.

The attempt, however, failed due to lack of required number of Congress members.

The Bills which were passed in the House were: The Xavier University Odisha Bill, 2013, The Indian Stamp (Odisha Amendment) Bill, 2013, Odisha Industrial Security Force (amendment) Bill, 2013, The Odisha Staff Nurse (validation and appointement) Bill, 2012 and The Odisha Anatomy (Amendment) Bill, 2012.

The session also witnessed resignation of the law minister Raghunath Mohanty who was accused of torturing his daughter-in-law Barsa Swony Choudhury for dowry. Mohanty's issue dominated several days in the session.

The budget session was also stormy with the opposition demanding resignation of Higher Education minister Badri Narayan Patra over Plus-II Science question paper leaks and Sports minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi for allegedly misusing his power to appear in the Plus-III examination.

The issue relating to rise in the crimes against women also dominated the session with the House being stalled several times over the matter.