Bhubaneswar: Odisha Assembly Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro has called for an all-party meeting June 24 — a day before the commencement of the first session of the 16th state Legislative Assembly.
The first session of the Assembly will start from June 25 and continue till August first week during which Finance minister Niranjan Pujari will present the annual state budget June 28.
This is for the first time that an all-party meeting will be held before the Assembly session in Odisha. The meeting is being held for smooth conduct of the House, Patro said.
The speaker said that the meeting will also discuss how to devote more time for debates on issues concerning the interests of the state.
The all-party meeting ahead of the Assembly session is significant in view of the fact that a high number of days get washed out as they have happened in earlier sessions due to noisy scenes created by members over different issues.
The meeting will also deliberate on issues to be taken up for discussion during the session.
Generally such meetings are held whenever there is disruption in the proceedings of the House to bring back normalcy.
The new Assembly has 111 members from BJD, followed by 23 BJP MLAs and nine MLAs from Congress. CPI(M) and Independent has one member each.
Senior Congress leader and former Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra thanked the Speaker for convening an all-party meeting before the Assembly session. Senior BJP leader Jayanarayan Mishra also welcomed the decision.
(PTI)
