Bhubaneswar, July 21: For the newly formed Mohan Majhi government,, the first session of the 17th Odisha Legislative Assembly beginning on Monday promises to be a challenging one as the opposition BJD and Congress have made elaborate plans to confront the treasury bench on many issues.
CM Majhi, who among others holds the financial portfolio, will present his maiden budget on July 25 and all eyes are focused on this document to find if it has accommodated the saffron party’s pre-poll promises. The major pre-poll promises of the BJP included rolling out Subhadra Yojana for women, enhancing paddy minimum support (MSP) to Rs 3,100 per quintal and increasing social security pension slabs meant for old-age people, widows and differently-abled persons to Rs 3,000.
According to financial experts, the new government needs at around Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 crore to meet its pre-poll promises.
Prior to the recently held Assembly elections, the previous Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government had presented an Rs 2.55 lakh crore vote-on-account (VOA).
Among the BJP’s pre-poll promises, the Subhadra Yojana which promises a cash voucher of Rs 50,000 to every woman was seen as game changer in the last assembly polls. According to analysts, this promise helped the party bulldoze the BJD’s 70-lakh strong women vote bank and bring it to power in the State.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJD led by former CM Naveen Patnaik has made an elaborate plan to confront the treasury bench members. It has asked its MLAs to get fully prepared on every subject so that the ministers can be kept on tenterhooks.
On Sunday, Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi and deputy CM K V Singhdeo met BJD president Naveen Patnaik at the latter’s residence and sought his cooperation for “productive” debate in the Odisha Legislative Assembly.
The Odisha Police has put in place a three-tier security cover in and around the Assembly. As many as 30 platoons of police forces have been deployed for the security purpose. Apart from it, bomb squads, dog squads, striking forces and SOG Jawans have also been deployed.
Armed police forces have also been deployed. The entire Assembly premise has been kept under CCTV surveillance.
