 "Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik")
Opposition BJP legislators walked out of an all-party meeting convened by Odisha assembly Speaker Bikram Keshari Arukha on Monday, a day before the budget session is slated to begin.
The members of the saffron party walked out of the meeting demanding that no member be allowed to attend the proceedings of the House in virtual mode.
As COVID-19 has subsided substantially and restrictions have been withdrawn, there is no need to allow any member to participate in House proceedings through virtual mode, Leader of Opposition Jaynarayan Mishra of BJP said.
Pointing out that no state assembly or Parliament now allows members to attend the House proceedings through virtual mode, Mishra said therefore, the Odisha Assembly should also follow the all-India practice, and ask all legislators to be physically present in the House instead of attending it from their homes.
They (the ruling party) are not listening to any of our issues and are doing whatever they want due to their majority in the House. Since they are not ready to listen to us, we walked out of the all-party meeting, the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly said.
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Congress legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra said his party is of the opinion that MLAs who are sick should be allowed to participate in the House through virtual mode.
I am 83 years old and shall attend the proceedings of the House in person. All members should attend the proceedings in person and exceptions should be there only for sick members, the CLP leader said.
The all-party meeting should be convened by the Leader of the House (Chief Minister) and not the Speaker, Mishra said.
Parliamentary Affairs minister Niranjan Pujari claimed that the all-party meeting convened by the Speaker was smooth.
Of the 16-point agenda, agreement was reached on 15 of them while there was a difference of opinion on one issue concerning allowing members to attend the proceeding through virtual mode.
The Speaker said that he called upon all the members to cooperate for the smooth functioning of the session beginning from February 21.
Meanwhile, Odisha's Director General of Police (DGP) Sunil Bansal Monday reviewed the security arrangements ahead of the budget session of the Assembly.
A 30-platoon police force will be deployed under a three-tier security arrangement, which will be supervised by senior officers, Bansal said.
In the 147-member assembly, the BJD has 113 MLAs, BJP 22, Congress-9, CPI(M) and Independent one each. One seat is vacant.
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