BHUBANESWAR: Formation of Odisha legislative council, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), national highways, minimum support price, crop insurance and withdrawal of GST on kendu leaf top the list of issues the BJD has decided to raise during the winter session of Parliament beginning Monday.
The regional party has been demanding Odisha should have Vidhan Parishad as is the case with many other states. Sources said, a proposal for the creation of a legislative council was unanimously passed in the Assembly on September 6, 2018, and sent to the Centre for approval. Though five years have passed, there has been no response from the Centre.
BJD said lakhs of people were deprived of houses under PMAY after the Centre closed the portal for Odisha for three years. Though only eight lakh houses were released after pressure from the party, seven lakhs more under PMAY are required to cover all beneficiaries.
As far as national highways are concerned, Odisha is the most neglected as several stretches of NHs passing through the state are lying in a dilapidated condition and the expansion of several has been delayed by several years.
The party will also raise issues like proposals pending for inclusion in the ST list of Odisha, the inclusion of Ho, Mundari, Bhumij, Saora and Kui languages in the 8th Schedule of Constitution, recommendations of Swaminathan Commission report and Ahimsa for inclusion in the Preamble of the Constitution. While as many as 169 proposals are pending for inclusion in the ST list, BJD’s demand for the withdrawal of GST on kendu leaf is yet to be taken up.