Legislative Council Row: Odisha Speaker takes on Centre

Insight Bureau:  Days after the Central Government denied receiving any resolution passed in the Odisha Assembly for the formation of a Legislative Council in the State, Speaker of Odisha Assembly, Surjya Narayan Patro has expressed his shock over Centre’s reply.

Patro, in reaction to a statement of Union Law & Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, informed that the resolution was submitted to the Centre on September 18, 2018 after the State Assembly passed a resolution to set up the Legislative Council in Odisha on September 6, 2018.

The copy of the resolution was submitted to the Secretary General of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and also to the Secretary of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Law & Justice, he said.

The Speaker said, one letter will be sent to the Parliament from the State Government and he will write another to the Union Law Minister on Monday.

It is pertinent to mention here that responding to a written question by BJD MP Prasanna Acharya that whether the Central Government would move to create such council under Article 169 of the Constitution in Odisha, the Union Law Minister earlier informed that no such resolution has been received by the State Government.