Bhubaneswar: Keeping in view the spread of novel coronavirus, the Odisha Assembly has suspended the meetings of various committees scheduled for July this year.
Speaking to mediapersons here, Assembly Speaker Surya Narayan Patro said meetings of several standing committees of the House were held last month. As the number of cases is rising in the country as well as in Odisha, it was decided to cancel all the meetings scheduled to be held this month, he said.
“The last Assembly session was concluded in March this year. Accordingly, the monsoon session was supposed to be held in August end or September, he said, adding, “We are discussing with the Speakers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha regarding holding of the Assembly session. We will act in accordance with the decision to be taken by the Centre as well as the state government.”
Commenting on this development, Opposition chief whip Mohan Charan Majhi (BJP) said, “I think it is not a good decision to suspend the meetings of standing committees. The meetings of House panels were convened after due deliberations with various members and all kinds of guidelines and social distancing norms were followed during the meetings.”
As very few members ranging from 7 to 12 were attending the meeting, there was no problem in holding such meetings, Majhi stated.