The State Assembly on Wednesday passed as many as seven important Bills in less than two hours in the absence of Opposition Congress and BJP members.
The Bills which were passed were the Odisha Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the Odisha Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the Odisha Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018, the Bihar and Odisha Palaces of Pilgrimage (Odisha Repeal) Bill, 2018, the Odisha Hindu Religious Endowments (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the Gandih Institute of Engineering and Technology University, Odisha Bill, 2018 and the Odisha Official Language (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018.
These Bills were passed following discussion by ruling BJD members only as Congress and BJP members had staged walkouts well before the Bills were presented by respective Ministers.
As the House reassembled, Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra (Congress) expressed strong resentments saying the Government gets Bills passed in the House without giving importance on suggestions made by him and other Opposition members. “I have made many suggestions for incorporation in Bills in the past. But these suggestions and views are totally immaterial to the ruling party and it has been a practice that every Bill is being passed in the absence of Opposition members. Hence, we have decided to cooperate in the functioning of the House,” Mishra said and staged a walkout along with his party MLAs.
BJP members followed the suit after Pradeep Purohit made similar allegation and said, “We can’t cooperate with this autocratic Government.”
As per the Odisha Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the disposal period of tax disputes was extended from three years to four years. The Odisha Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018 simplified the GST payment for small and medium traders and taxpayers while the Bihar and Odisha Palaces of Pilgrimage (Odisha Repeal) Bill, 2018 was passed to repeal the Bihar and Odisha Palaces of Pilgrimage Act 1917 for its irrelevance.
With passing of the the Gandih Institute of Engineering and Technology University, Odisha Bill, 2018, the Gandih Institute of Engineering and Technology established at Gunupur in Raygada district in 1997 got university status.
The important Odisha Official Language (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 made a provision of punishment for those who don’t use Odia as per the Act and Government officials responsible for that.