Odisha Legislative Assembly: Parties chalk out strategy ahead of House session
BHUBANESWAR: With the budget session of the assembly starting from Thursday, the opposition BJP and Congress are gearing up to corner the government with issues like border dispute, mandi mismanagement, law and order problem and rising fuel and LPG prices.
All the three parties, including the ruling BJD, held their legislature party meetings to discuss strategies for the forthcoming session. Targeting the government over the border dispute with Andhra Pradesh, opposition chief whip and senior BJP leader Mohan Majhi said the state government was not alert to Andhra Pradesh’s plans to conduct panchayat polls in Kotia and in Ganjam and Gajapati districts.
“Our party will raise the border dispute in the assembly. Besides, we will also raise the issue of farmers as they are not able to sell their paddy despite having tokens, owing to mismanagement in mandis. The Mahanga murder issue and the Nayagarh incident have shown that law and order situation in the state has collapsed, which will also be discussed,” said Majhi.
Expressing concern over the Kotia issue, leader of opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik also wrote a letter to chief minister Naveen Patnaik and urged him to expedite development process in the bordering villages and to ensure basic rights of people living in those areas.
Congress legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra also slammed the government over the border dispute. “Odisha is being attacked from all directions. Andhra has taken away our land while West Bengal our sand and Chhattisgarh our water. Other states are exploiting our resources because of weak leadership. We will raise this issue as well as those related to farmers and rising fuel and LPG prices,” said Mishra.
The government has also chalked out a counter-strategy to face the opposition during the session. “We will highlight the issue of reduced central fund flow to the state, non-release of GST compensation, the need to increase minimum support price of paddy and the draft bye-law row during the session,” state parliamentary affairs minister Bikram Keshari Arukh said.