Bhubaneswar: The monsoon session of the state Assembly ended after enacting six legislations on the final day Saturday.
Altogether 14 bills were passed and many key issues were taken up for debate and discussion during the eight-day short session.
The bills include the University of Oriya Language and Literature Bill 2017; the Orissa State Higher Education Council Bill 2017; the Orissa Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2017; the Orissa Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Bill 2017; the Orissa Sales Tax (Settlement of Arrears) Amendment Bill 2017; the University of Oriya Language and Literature Bill 2017, among others.
On the last day, however, the pre-lunch session was chaotic with opposition Congress and ruling BJD trading charges over increasing fuel price in the state and the country. Nevertheless, six bills were taken up for consideration and passed.
Among these, the important ones were the bills for hike of salary of Speaker, Deputy Speaker, ministers and MLAs for which four separate bills that had been laid on the floor of the House Friday were taken up for consideration and passed. The other two bills that were enacted were: the Orissa Service of Engineers (Validation of Appointment) Amendment Bill 2017 and the Orissa Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill 2017.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thanked the Speaker, the leader of the Opposition and other members of the House for their cooperation in running the House smoothly.
Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra (Congress) and BJP member Rabi Narayan Nayak also joined the Chief Minister in thanking the Speaker and all other members for smooth transaction of House business.
The short session, however, also remained stormy over various issues, including central negligence, Mahanadi water dispute, law and order situation, Bomikhal ROB collapse which claimed one life and injured many others, drought and farmers’ issues, among others. PNN