The sixth session (Budget Session) of the 15th Odisha legislative Assembly would begin from Tuesday.
While the Opposition is set to raise several issues, including the alleged link of ruling party leaders with the gangster Dhalsamant brothers, irregularities in the distribution of ration cards, tender fixing, to corner the Government, the ruling BJD on Monday finalised its strategies to counter the Opposition.
The legislature party meeting of the BJD which was held under the chairmanship of party supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik came up with a number of issues, like recent drive against the criminalised elements, neglect to the State in the 2016-17 Central budget and slashing of Central assistance for a number of welfare schemes to take on the opposition parties.
“This Budget Session is very important. For the first time we are going to present the State Budget after the Union Budget. This will help us in preparing our Budget accurately,” said Patnaik after the meeting.
“The recent drive against the criminalised elements by my Government has earned widespread public appreciation. But the opposition political parties with oblique motives are making serious attempts to derail this process by unnecessarily politicising the issue. I believe, they want to give legitimacy to such criminalised elements,” said Patnaik.
Patnaik asked the party MlAs to strongly oppose this move by the opposition inside and outside the house.
Issues like delay in drought aid, Phailin dues, non allocation of funds for construction of five medical colleges, Pollavaram and inclusion of Odisha in the East Coast Economic Corridor and denial of Special Categorey Status, insignificant increase under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sechi Yojana, reduction in allocation for education sector, allocation for Tribal Welfare under Article-275(1) and TSP, and mismatch in the growth of net tax revenue to the Centre and tax devolution to the States in the Union Budget would be raised.