Bhubaneswar: Opposition BJP legislators walked out Monday of an all-party meeting convened by Odisha Assembly Speaker Bikram Keshari Arukha, a day before the Budget Session is slated to begin. The BJP legislators of 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“As Covid-19 has subsided substantially and restrictions have been withdrawn, there is no need to allow any member to participate in House proceedings through virtual mode,” Leader of Opposition (LoP) Jaynarayan Mishra of the BJP said.
Jayanarayan pointed out that no state Assembly or Parliament now allows members to attend House proceedings through virtual mode. He said 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,” Mishra said.
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,” Narasingha stated. The all-party meeting should be convened by the Leader of the House (Chief Minister) and not the Speaker, Mishra added.
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,” Pujari told reporters.
The Speaker said that he called upon all the members to cooperate for the smooth functioning of the session beginning February 21.