BHUBANESWAR: The State Government is likely to move a resolution in the monsoon session of the Assembly in September for formation of Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council) as per the Telangana model. The Legislative Council can be set up in a State on the basis of an Act of Parliament. Sources said the resolution passed in the Odisha Assembly will be sent to Parliament in this regard. The move to set up the Vidhan Parishad was initiated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik amidst Opposition allegations that it will be turned into a rehabilitation centre for the ruling BJD leaders.
The special committee on Vidhan Parishad headed by Minister of State for Commerce and Transport Nrusingha Charan Sahu, which visited different States to study the functioning of the Legislative Council, on Friday submitted its report to the Chief Minister at the Secretariat here. The committee had visited Bihar and Telangana recently. Earlier, the committee had visited Maharashtra and Karnataka in 2015.
The committee studied the resolution passed by the Telangana Legislative Assembly for setting up the Vidhan Parishad. A similar resolution will be tabled in the Odisha Assembly in next session. The State Government had formed a five-member panel to study functioning of legislative councils in different States.
Besides Sahu, other members of the committee were Manohar Randhari, Pramila Mallik (both BJD), Bhujabal Majhi (Congress) and Nitish Gangadeb (BJP). However, Majhi and Gangadeb had expressed their unwillingness to visit the two States. The first meeting of the committee was held on January 19, 2015 which the Congress and BJP members had boycotted.
49-member house
The proposed Legislative Council in Odisha will have 49 members. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh have Legislative Councils. The Union Cabinet has recently cleared a proposal of setting up a Legislative Council of Assam.