BHUBANESWAR : Ahead of the Budget session, Speaker Surama Padhy has convened an all-party meeting on Monday for ensuring smooth conduct of the proceedings in the Assembly.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, deputy chief minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, Parliamentary Affairs minister Mukesh Mahaling, deputy leader of Opposition Prasanna Acharya, leader of the Congress legislature party Ramachandra Kadam and other representatives of the ruling BJP and Opposition are expected to attend the meeting.
The session is likely to be stormy with the BJD and Congress gearing up to corner the government on several issues including deteriorating law and order situation, farmers’ distress and low budget expenditure. The issues will be finalised at the meeting of the BJD legislature party to be presided over by leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik on Monday, Acharya said.
Besides law and order situation and farmers’ issues, the BJD will raise low budget expenditure in 2025-26. Stating that expenditure of different departments varied between 55 to 60 per cent, Acharya said this was one of the lowest ever budget expenditure. Besides, the failure to move forward to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute with Chhattisgarh despite having triple-engine government in place will also be raised.
CLP leader Kadam said growing crime against women in Odisha, farmers’ distress and non-fulfilment of various promises by the government will be raised by Congress during the session. The CLP meeting will be held on Monday to finalise the party strategy, he said.
The session will commence on February 17 with the Governor’s address. On February 20, the chief minister, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will present the budget for the financial year 2026-27. The session will be conducted in two phases, comprising a total of 28 working days. The first phase will run from February 17 to February 24, while the second phase is scheduled from March 9 to April 8.