Congress, BJP reject panel to study Legislative Councils

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Jan 9: Opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have rejected Odisha Government’s decision to set up a panel comprising five legislators to study the functioning of Legislative Councils in other States.Both the parties termed the State Government’s decision arbitrary saying that the Leaders of their respective Legislature Parties or the legislators concerned had not been consulted before the five-member committee was announced two days ago.The two parties announced that their legislators will not join the committee as the decision had not been taken arbitrarily.Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan told journalists that the Government should have consulted all opposition parties before taking such a decision.Neither the BJP State president K.V.Singh Deo nor the legislator concerned were consulted before the Government announced the five-member panel, said Basant Panda, Leader of the BJP Legislature Party leader in the State Assembly.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha had on Wednesday announced the formation of the committee with three legislators of the ruling Biju Janata Dal and one each from Congress and BJP.While legislators Nrusingha Sahu, Pramila Mallick and Manohar Randhari of BJD were named as members of the committee, Bhujbal Majhi was named from Congress and Nitesh Ganga Deb from the BJP.Arukha had said that the five member committee had to visit Maharashtra and Karnataka study of the functioning of the Legislative Councils in the two States and submit a report to the government by the end of this month.Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) criticised the Naveen Patnaik Government’s decision to establish a Legislative Council in the State.Opposing the State Government’s decision, State CPI(M) leader Dushmanta Kumar Das said in a statement that the State Government should not begin the process for the establishment of a Legislative Council in Odisha as formation of the same would unnecessarily lead of wastage of crores of rupees and would not serve the cause of the State in any manner.The money that would have been spend for the proposed Legislative Council should be spend for the welfare of the poor people of the State, Das said in the statement.Arukha had on January 2 held a meeting with the Secretary of his Department and Secretary of the Odisha Legislative Assembly and then announced the Government’s decision to constitute a Legislative Council in the State.