Opposition stages walkout from Odisha Assembly during Governor's address

The Budget session ofthe Odisha assembly started on a stormy note on Thursday withopposition Congress and BJP members staging a walkout as soonas Governor Ganesh Lal started addressing the House.

The Congress members led by its whip TaraprasadBahinipati raised slogans and urged the governor to stopreading out his speech in praise of the BJD government.

The BJP members also followed suit and walked out ofthe House.

While the Congress was critical over the AndhraPradesh government conducting rural polls in a cluster ofvillages at Kotia in Odisha's Koraput district, rising fuelprices and law and order situation, the BJP members raisedissues relating to Kotia polls, irregularities in paddyprocurement and rising incidents of political violence.

After staging the walkout from the House, theOpposition members sat on a dharna near Mahatma Gandhi'sstatue on the Assembly premises.

The governor in his speech said that the overall lawand order situation in the state had remained peaceful during2020.

No major law and order incident had teken place due tothe proactive role of the police, he said.

The police successfully handled the COVID-19 situationand as many as 49 police personnel sacrificed their lives inthe line of duty during the pandemic, and 940 police personneldonated plasma to save the lives of critical coronaviruspatients.

''The Left Wing Extremism scenario has remarkablyreduced during the past five years due to proactive securityand administrative response,'' Lal said.

On the economic front, the governor said, the stategovernment was able to plough back about Rs 2,800 crore bymopping up government money parked in bank accounts.

One Time Settlement (OTS) schemes have been introducedfor the realisation of revenue arrears, he said.

The state government has been able to collect revenueamounting to Rs 38,760 crore by the end of January, 2021 whichis about 7.3 per cent more than the collection during thecorresponding period of the previous year, the governor said.

Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic posed a uniquechallenge to Odishas public finances, the governor said, thecrisis resulted in shrinkage in fiscal space which compelledthe government to reprioritise its public spending to meet thehigher demand for spending on COVID management, creatinglivelihood opportunities, promoting agriculture as well as theIndustries and MSME sector for employment generation.

As a temporary measure, the corpus of the ContingencyFund was enhanced from Rs 400 crore to Rs 2,000 crore toprovide the required fiscal space for aggressive response tothe pandemic, he said.

The government also adopted an innovative way to availcheaper sources of financing from surplus cash balance indedicated funds, like Compensatory Afforestation FundManagement and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and OdishaMineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC), tomaintain the required liquidity during the crisis.

The Budget session started with strict adherence toCOVID-19 guidelines and all members had to produce corona-negative reports for entering the House.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who had attended theprevious two sessions of the Assembly on virtual mode, wasphysically present in the House on Thursday.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)