BHUBANESWAR: The BJP and Congress legislators staged a walkout during governor Ganeshi Lal’s address as the budget session of the assembly kicked off on a stormy note on Thursday, setting the tone for the rest of the session.
Moments after the governor began his address, Congress MLAs started raising slogans against the state and central governments and staged a walkout. A few minutes later the BJP legislators, too, walked out of the assembly.
The governor, in his address, lauded the state government’s role in managing the Covid-19 situation and also lauded the efforts to revive the pandemic-hit economy. Speaking in front of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who had attended the previous two sessions through video-conference, but was present in the house on Thursday, Lal said, “My government has been able to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic very effectively, which resulted in containing the spread of the virus, creating proper medical facilities for treatment of the affected and saving precious human lives. Odisha declared the pandemic as a state disaster on March 13, even before a single case was detected, and took pro-active measures.”
Stating that Odisha started the lockdown before the Centre announced it, the governor said it was managed smoothly without causing major inconvenience to the general public. He also highlighted the steps taken by the state government like ensuring food security during the lockdown, involving panchayati raj institutions, community participation and motivating Covid warriors.
Lal said despite the severe impact of Covid-19 on revenue, the state has been able to achieve positive growth, which is an indication of the recovery of economic activities in the state. The state government has been able to collect revenue amounting to Rs 38,760 crore by the end of January, 2021, which is about 7.3% more than the collection during the corresponding period of the previous year, Lal said in his address.
“The pandemic posed a unique challenge to Odisha’s public finances. The crisis resulted in a shrinkage in fiscal space which compelled my government to re-prioritise its public spending to meet the higher demand for spending on Covid management, creating livelihood opportunities, promoting agriculture as well as industries and MSME sector for employment generation,” said the governor. He said the overall law and order situation in the state remained peaceful during 2020 as no major incident took place due to proactive role of the police. Hailing the role of police in Covid management, Lal said 49 police personnel have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.
Later, justifying the decision of his colleagues, Congress legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra said the governor’s address did not feature any of the sensitive issues like border dispute, mismanagement in paddy procurement and rising fuel prices. Leader of opposition Pradipta Naik raised similar issues for the party’s decision to stage a walkout.