Budget session of Odisha Assembly begins

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Feb 6: The budget session of the Odisha Assembly started here today with Governor Senayangba Chubatoshi Jamir addressing the House highlighting the various achievements of the State Government.The Governor was given a guard of honour on his arrival at the Assembly to address the opening day of the crucial session.In the beginning of his address, Jamir paid tributes to former Governor of the State Rameshwar Thakur, several former members of the Assembly and jawans who passed away in the recent past.The Governor’s address, however, was affected by the parallel speech by Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Narasingha Mishra.Jamir continued his address even as Mishra continued to make a speech raising his objections.Opposition WalkoutAs Jamir continued his speech, the legislators of opposition Congress and BJP staged a walkout to register their protest against the Governor’s speech highlighting the achievements of the Naveen Patnaik Government. The session is likely to be stormy as opposition Congress and BJP are expected to raise various issues such as the distress sale of paddy, chit fund scam, land scam, mining scam and law and order situation to corner the BJD government headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.This budget session will have 30 working days and would be held in two phases.While the first phase will be held from February 6 to 21, the second phase is scheduled to be held from March 10 till the conclusion of the session on April 4.The budget for 2015-16 will be presented by Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat in the Assembly on February 16.The Appropriation Bill will be placed in the House on March 31.Tight security arrangements have been made in and around the Assembly building to prevent any untoward incident during the session.Security had been strengthened after the Bhubaneswar police received an anonymous letter on Thursday.The postcard letter threatened to blow up the Assembly building, Chief Minister’s residence and the State BJP headquarters in the city.More than 30 platoons of police and two units of the Special Operations Group have been deployed at strategic points of the Capital city.Incidentally, a CCTV surveillance system was inaugurated in the city by the Chief Minister on Thursday.A total of 114 CCTV cameras have been installed at 28 locations in the first phase.The project, which is to be implemented in three phase, will cover 90 locations with more than 350 cameras.