BHUBANESWAR: Amidst the buzz over an early election, the monsoon session of the assembly will commence from September 22. It may also be the last session of the assembly before the state goes to polls. The session will continue till October 4. The state government will place the supplementary budget on the first day.
The supplementary budget will be of around Rs 25,000 crore, the highest ever to be brought by the government. The appropriation bill for the supplementary budget will be placed in the house on October 3.
The session will have eight working days out of which three have been kept for official business while October 4, the last day, will be for private members’ business. A day before the monsoon session, election to the post of Speaker will be held on September 21. The post has been vacant for more than three and a half months after the resignation of Bikram Keshari Arukha on May 12.
Names of Prafulla Samal, Amar Prasad Satpathy, Debi Prasad Mishra and Nrusingha Charan Sahu are doing rounds for the post of Speaker. Sources in the BJD, however, maintained that a decision in this regard will be taken at the right time. Unless the chief minister again springs a surprise, Samal may emerge as the front-runner for the constitutional post.
Arukha was inducted to the state cabinet as finance minister on May 22 when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expanded his cabinet. Deputy Speaker Rajani Kanta Singh is now the acting Speaker of the assembly.