Odisha assembly's monsoon session begins

Bhubaneswar, Jul 2 (PTI) The monsoon session of the Odisha assembly began on Saturday morning with Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari scheduled to present the full Budget for 2022-23 in the afternoon.

Chief Minister Patnaik attended the proceedings virtually from his residence, while Steel and Mines Minister PK Mallick and senior BJD MLA Prafulla Samal joined the session from Lok Seva Bhavan.

Speaker BK Arukha said members are allowed to participate in the proceeding through video conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the proceedings began, Patnaik moved a motion, mourning the death of former Balliguda MLA Surendra Nath Kanhar. The motion was supported by deputy leader of opposition Bishnu Charan Sethi of BJP, Congress legislative party leader Narasingha Mishra and CPI(M) MLA Laxman Munda.

Following that, the Question Hour was held with all members participating in the proceedings.

The finance minister is slated to present the full-fledged budget for 2022-23 financial year in the afternoon.

On March 30, he presented an interim Budget with an outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore.

A full-fledged Budget could not be presented in view of the panchayat and civic polls in February-March.

Meanwhile, the duration of the House proceedings was extended by an hour. It will be held from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm before lunch, and again from 4 pm to 7 pm, instead of 6 pm.

The session, which will continue till August 4, will have 24 working days. Two days have been marked for private members' business.

The MLAs were made to seat at a distance of two metres with some seated in the press gallery. The press was not allowed inside the House, and allotted a hall where the proceedings were shown on a TV screen. PTI AAM AAM SOM SOM