No Question Hour In Winter Session Of Odisha  Assembly: Speaker

Bhubaneswar: The winter session of the Odisha Assembly, beginning Friday, will have no question hour.

Briefing mediapersons after presiding over the all-party meeting, Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro said that a decision to this effect was taken in view of the COVID-19 situation.

Stating that the sitting arrangements for the MLAs will be made in accordance with the COVID-19 guidelines, he said senior MLAs can also participate in the proceedings through video conferencing either from their house or from the collectorate office in their respective districts. “Arrangements have been made to send starred questions to the residence of the ministers by post for a reply,” he added.

Maintaining that the daily duration of the house session will be of four and half hours, the Speaker said the first session will be held from 10.30 am to 1 pm and the second session from 3 pm to 5 pm.

Protesting against the cancellation of the question-hour session, leader of the Opposition Pradipta Naik said the session should have been held to enable the MLAs to raise the problems of their respective constituencies. The Speaker instead of cancelling the question hour session should have allowed another half an hour for the session, he pointed out.