BHUBANESWAR: Speaker SN Patro on Tuesday directed all the State universities to submit pending annual audit reports during the next session of the Assembly.
Giving his ruling in the midst of demand discussion of Energy department, Patro said, “As per Section 23 (2) of The Odisha Universities Act 1989, the State-run and other universities are mandated to submit audit/annual report in the Assembly every year.”
Patro asked the departments concerned to submit all pending audit/annual reports during the next session without fail.
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Narasingh Mishra had raised this issue on July 20. Noting that non-submission audit report is a violation of the Odisha University Act, Mishra had named 29 universities including some private ones where annual audits were allegedly not conducted regularly.
Speaker order to expunge remarks against Congress leaders
In a separate ruling, the Speaker directed the Assembly Secretariat to expunge the derogatory remarks made against senior Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Navjot Singh Sidhu. The ruling came the following objection from the CLP leader to some remarks of BJP member Bishnu Sethi against the two Congress leaders on Monday.
Hike in upper age limit for Govt jobs sought
BJD MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik on Tuesday urged the State Government to raise the upper age limit for jobs in Odisha to 42 years on par with States like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Uttarakhand.
Raising the issue during zero hours, Patnaik said enhancing the age limit will enable a large number of unemployed youths to apply for Government jobs. Stating that a large number of State Government posts are lying vacant, he said raising of the age bar will benefit the administration. Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik had also raised the issue in the House two days back.