BHUBANESWAR: The special committee formed by the State Government to study the functioning of the Legislative Councils in other States for formation of the Parishad in Odisha would soon visit Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. A proposal in this regard was approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday.
The committee will submit a report after its visit to the two States. It had earlier visited Maharashtra and Karnataka in 2015 to find out methods of formation and functioning of Legislative Councils.
“Earlier, we had visited Maharashtra and Karnataka where Legislative Council was formed before Legislative Assembly. This time, we will visit Andhra Pradesh and Bihar where Legislative Assembly was formed before Legislative Council, which is similar to Odisha,” Minister of State for Commerce and Transport Nrusingha Charan Sahu said.
The Chief Minister had constituted the committee headed by Sahu in 2015. Other members of the committee are Pramila Mallik and Manohar Randhari (BJD), Bhujabal Majhi (Congress) and Nitesh Gangdeb (BJP).
The release said several States including Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh have legislative council. Eminent citizens from diverse fields take part in the law making process through the legislative councils.
However, criticising the move, BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra said, “The move by Odisha Government is just a drama to mislead people ahead of next polls. If it was so necessary, they could have established it after a visit to other States in 2015. This is nothing but a trick ahead of the polls,” he said.
The first meeting of the committee was held on January 19, 2015 which the Congress and BJP members did not attend.