BHUBANESWAR: LEADER of the Opposition Pradipta Naik on Friday came down heavily on the State Government on Friday for filing an affidavit before the Orissa High Court stating that it is not legally empowered to intervene in the reduction of tuition fees of private schools and asked it to take an appropriate decision based on the demands and claims of the parents’ association.
In a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the BJP leader said that the government could have promulgated an ordinance empowering itself to take a decision in the matter as it had done to amend the Odisha University Act, 1989. The government could have introduced a Bill in the recently concluded Winter session of the Assembly to legislate a law to intervene in the fee structure and payment in extraordinary circumstances. The Epidemic Act, 1987 has empowered the government to take suitable decisions as the situation warranted to mitigate the burden of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the Disaster Management Act, 2015 vide section 35, 62 and 72 has also given extensive power, irrespective of any law in force or not and the government could have invoked its power to take a just and right decision instead of intimating the Orissa High Court on inadequacy of law.
Naik said the government had declared the sarpanch as collector and empowered them to declare lockdown in their areas and direct any particular person to stay in quarantine without any specific provisions of law in the Odisha Gram Panchayat Act. The government could have taken a similar decision in this case, he said while requesting the State government to take a suitable decision on the basis of the claims of the parents’ association.