By Our Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, January 10, 2015

The opposition Congress and BJP on Friday dealt a body blow to the Odisha government’s plans to constitute a State Legislative Council (SLC) by stating that their legislators would not be part of the study panel constituted to suggest the shape of council.

The BJD government had formed a five- member committee to study the functioning of legislative councils in other states. The committee proposed by the government included three members from BJD and one each from the opposition Congress and BJP.

“As it appears, the ruling BJD is in a hurry to form the legislative council to rehabilitate its members who lost the elections or did not get the party ticket. It has not even bothered to inform the BJP member who has been made a member of the committee,” Basant Panda, BJP Legislature Party leader in the state Assembly said.

BJP legislator from Patnagarh assembly seat Kanak Vardhan Singhdeo has been named as the member in the study panel.

“It is surprising that the state government, without informing the Patnagarh legislator or me, has included him in the study panel,” Panda said.

The BJPLP leader demanded that an all-party meeting should be called over the issue.

Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra also said his party rejected the panel as it was formed without consulting members of other parties.

“We reject the study panel since it was formed without consulting us,” Misrha said.

Reacting to the development, Parliamentary Affairs minister Bikram Keshari Arukh said, “We have included members from BJD, BJP and Congress as per the democratic procedure. They will visit Maharashtra and Karnataka and submit their suggestions by the end of this month. We are following the high traditions of democratic principles and hope that the nominated members will be part of the committee and tour as scheduled.”

On January 7, Arukh had announced the five- member committee to study the functioning of legislative councils in other states.

While Nrusingha Sahu, Pramila Mallick and Manohar Randhari from the ruling BJD were named as the committee’s members, Bhujbal Majhi was named from Congress and Nitesh Gangdev from the BJP.