Odisha Assembly Winter Session held for only 4 days; Oppn slams govt

Bhubaneswar: The Winter Session of Odisha Assembly was adjourned sine die today, at least 26 business days ahead of its schedule.

The Winter Session of the Assembly commenced on November 21 and it was scheduled to conclude on December 30. The Assembly was supposed to conduct business for 30 days during the Winter Session.

Ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief whip in Odisha Assembly, Prashanta Muduli brought a motion to adjourn the House sine die for the remaining period of the Winter Session. Ruling party MLAs Sashi Bhusan Behera and Bhupinder Singh seconded the motion.

The MLAs of Opposition BJP and Congress staged a walkout to protest against the motion.

Speaker Pramila Mallik adjourned the House sine die even though it had transacted business for only four days during the Winter Session.

Earlier in the day, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Niranjan Pujari informed the Assembly that the Odisha Cabinet led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has its decision of allowing transfer of tribals’ land to non-tribals.

The Cabinet had on November 14 approved amendments to some provisions of Regulation-2 of Odisha Scheduled Areas Transfer of Immovable Property Amendment Regulation to facilitate the transfer and mortgage of land belonging to scheduled tribes (STs).

The government later withheld its decision after facing strong criticism from the Opposition parties.