Cabinet okays Legislative Council formation

In a politically significant move ahead of the general elections, the Odisha Government approved a draft for constitution of a State Legislative Council at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here on Friday .

A resolution would be brought in the upcoming Monsoon Session of the State Legislative Assembly for formation of the proposed Odisha Legislative Council, informed Parliamentary Affairs Minister BK Aarukh after the Cabinet meeting.

The Assembly session is scheduled to begin on September 4.

Once the Assembly approves the resolution, it would be sent for approval of the Parliament under Article 169 of the Constitution of India.

The proposed Legislative Council would comprise 49 members.

As per Article 171 Clause (1) of the Constitution, the total number of members in a Legislative Council of a State shall not exceed one-third of the total number of members in the Legislative Assembly of that State and the total number of members in the Legislative Council of a State shall in no case be less than 40. As the total number of members in the Odisha Assembly is 147, the total number of members in the Legislative Council would be 49, Aarukh explained.

A committee led by Transport Minister Nrushingha Charan Sahu had submitted a report to the Chief Minister recommending formation of a Legislative Council on August 3 after visiting Bihar and Telangana to study the functioning of the Legislative Councils in those States, the Minister told the reporters.

Earlier, the panel had toured Maharashtra and Karnataka for the same purpose after its constitution in 2015.

It had three ruling BJD members, Nrusingha Charan Sahu, Pramila Mallik and Manohar Randhari, and two Opposition members, Bhujabal Majhi and Nitesh Gangdev, of the Congress and the BJP, respectively.