Odisha Opposition to raise 5T issue in Parliament monsoon session

With the monsoon session of the Parliament set to begin on Thursday, the Odisha units of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress have readied themselves to launch an all-out attack on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) over the 5T secretary's controversial visits.

In the last Assembly session, the Opposition had raised the issue of the 5T secretary’s ‘undemocratic’ visits to several districts and project announcements. The same issue is expected to be raised in the Parliament as well. It is alleged that the visits by the 5T secretary along with addressing public gatherings are undemocratic.

“A Private Secretary of the Chief Minister is going to the people and delivering speeches. If the BJD is terming this act a ‘Model’ then they should present this model in the Parliament as well,” said BJP MP Suresh Pujari.

At the same time, the Congress party will also raise the issue of service conduct rule violation by the 5T Secretary, VK Pandian.

“An IAS officer is blatantly violating the All India Services (Conduct) Rule by blowing conch all the way and distributing money for the BJD. This is unfortunate. We will raise this issue in the Parliament and ask the Prime Minister if there is any relevance of All India Services (Conduct) Rule in our country,” said Congress' Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka.

Asked about the allegations, BJD MP from Jajpur, Sarmistha Sethi said, “Odisha has been transformed under the 5T initiative. Moreover, the CMO is going to the public to address their grievances. We will publicise this achievement more in a positive way.”

The BJD however has plans to raise the demand for focus state status for Odisha. Apart from that the BJD will also demand more houses under PM Awas Yojana and highlight the issue of non-procurement of parboiled rice by the FCI. The Conch party will also demand the introduction of a passenger train to Kendrapara.

“Women’s reservation bill is our primary concern. CM Naveen Patnaik has told us to prioritise this demand so that this bill is passed unanimously in Parliament. Other than that there are some other issues like par-boiled rice and Awas Yojana issue which will be raised in the Parliament as well,” said BJD MP, Pinaki Misra.

BJP MP Pratap Sarangi said, “Centre has already granted enough houses under the PM Awas Scheme, but the State government has distributed them among ineligible beneficiaries creating an artificial shortage of houses. Corruption has gone to alarming levels in Odisha."

It is pertinent to mention here that the upcoming monsoon session of the Parliament will start on July 20 and continue till August 11. The session will be held in the new parliament building, marking a significant milestone. It is expected to have 15 sittings.

In the 23-day monsoon session, there will be 17 working days in which the Centre will table and try to pass 21 new bills and seven existing bills.