BHUBANESWAR: THE Opposition is all set to corner the State Government in the Budget session of the Assembly beginning from Thursday by raising several issues including the Kotia border dispute and draft heritage bylaws even as the ruling BJD is prepared to counter the attack by demanding the withdrawal of heritage bylaws from the temples hosting living deities.
The BJD convened the meeting of the legislature party on Wednesday to prioritise the issues to be taken up by the party during the session while the BJP legislature party held a meeting of the MLAs through video conference on Tuesday in the presence of Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan to discuss the strategy to be adopted by the party in the floor of the House to corner the government. Physical meeting of the BJP MLAs will be held on Wednesday. Some of the other issues to be taken up are deteriorating law and order situation in the State, large scale irregularities in the procurement of paddy and rise in the numbers of political murders in Odisha.
Sources said that the BJD will raise the issue of draft notification of heritage bylaws, demand its withdrawal and may adopt a resolution in the Assembly in this regard, while the Opposition will insist on discussion on the State government’s failure to stop Andhra Pradesh government to hold panchayat polls in disputed villages of Kotia gram panchayat, murder of BJP leaders in Mahanga constituency and other issues.
“Several issues including large scale irregularities in procurement of paddy, growing crime against women and political murders and State government’s neglect of border villages including Kotia gram panchayat will be raised by the party in the Assembly,” Opposition chief whip and BJP leader Mohan Majhi told this paper. Majhi said that the party will also raise the issue of the State government’s lapses in protecting the heritage sites and draft notification issued by the National Monuments Authority (NMA).
The Congress, too, will raise similar issues. “We will question the State government’s support to the Centre on the contentious Farm Acts, the growing crimes against women, the government’s inaction in protecting the interest of Odisha in Mahanadi river water dispute and unprecedented hike in the price of petrol and diesel”, leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingh Mishra told this paper.
The party will project Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as a weak leader as a state holding panchayat polls in the neighbouring state is unprecedented, he said and added, everywhere the government has sacrificed the interest of Odisha. Mishra said that CLP meeting will be held on February 17 and 18. Odisha in-charge A Chellakumar will attend the meeting on February 18 where issues will be prioritised, he said.