BJD asks Centre for State share from cess on fuel, LPG

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Ahead of Monsoon Session of the Parliament beginning from tomorrow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired an all-party meeting in New Delhi today during which BJD raised three demands.

Pinaki Mishra, BJD’s Parliamentary Party Leader, who attended the all-party meeting, said the party placed primarily three demands. Firstly, it wanted the Centre to procure the surplus rice from Odisha and release of the pending food subsidy amounting to crores to the State at the earliest, Mishra stated.

Also, BJD, which is the ruling party in Odisha, demanded the Centre to provide a share of the additional cess from fuel and cooking gas to States to help them fight against Covid-19 effectively.

Mishra during the all-party meeting also urged the Centre to restore the MP LAD fund. “When MLAs in States are getting MLALAD fund of Rs 5 crore, MPs have become powerless because of non-allocation of the MPLAD fund. We demanded early restoration of the MP LAD fund,” he added.

The party also raised three issues including tabling of the women’s reservation bill during the monsoon session. “It was quite concerning to find only two women MPs among 40 men MPs at the all-party meeting. We demanded for presenting of the women’s reservation bill in the Parliament for discussion,” he added.

Besides, the party expressed concern as the ST list bill for inclusion of more groups as the scheduled tribes and the Legislative Council Bill for Odisha were not included in the 29 Bills that will be presented in the Monsoon Session for debate.