BHUBANESWAR: The Monsoon session of the Odisha Assembly will begin on September 29. The eight-day-long session, which will conclude on October 7, will have no Question Hour, the Assembly Secretariat notified on Monday.The House will be closed on Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 but will transact business on October 4, a Sunday.
Sources, however, maintained that though there would be no Question Hour, members can get replies to their unstarred questions. It is yet to be decided whether adjournment motions submitted by the Opposition members will be allowed for discussion in the House.
Assembly Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro is likely to convene an all party meeting on September 26 to discuss how to carry on the business of the House during the Covid-19 pandemic. As more and more ministers and MLAs are testing Covid-19 positive, it has become a cause for worry for the Speaker and the Government to conduct the session.
Since this will be the first Assembly session to be held amid the Covid-19 pandemic, all safety measures will be taken to conduct the session. The Speaker said that senior legislators can take part in the proceedings through video-conferencing from their respective district headquarters. All MLAs, officers, and other staff who will be entering the Assembly during its upcoming session will have to undergo Covid-19 test. A special counter will be opened in the Assembly for the test.