By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday while presiding the Legislature Party meeting prior to the Winter Session of the State Assembly, asked Government’s Chief Whip Pramila Mallick to keep a close watch on the attendance of Party MLAs during the ongoing session.
Chief Minister Patnaik, who also President of BJD, asked his party MLAs to remain present in the House during the Winter session of the state Assembly. The Patnaik asked Mallick, to send him a report on the daily attendance of party MLAs in the House at 11:30am every day.
“A party MLA who wants to go on leave for two or more days will have to seek my permission”, Patnaik told the BJD legislators.
The BJD president also informed the party MLAs that he will review their performance in the House. “The members should actively participate in debates. I would be particularly watching the performance of first-time members,” Patnaik said.
The BJD president formed a four-member committee comprising senior members – Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Usha Devi, Amar Prasad Satpathy and Kishore Mohanty, to suggest and frame the reporting format and contents.
The chief minister also asked the party MLAs to submit bi-monthly activity reports to him. “You all know that MPs are submitting bi-monthly activity report to me. Similarly, we would have a MLA reports submitted bi-monthly to me,” he said.
In accordance with the state governments 5T (team work, transparency, technology, time leading to transformation) policy, Patnaik said the BJD MLAs should use technology.
Stating that he welcomes constructive criticism from the opposition members, Patnaik said the state government is ready for discussion on any issue to be raised by the opposition.
He also suggested the MLAs to dedicate their full time for the welfare of the citizens and reiterated that the people of Odisha are their real masters.
“The mandate of Patkura and Bijepur by-election is again a reminder of how much faith people have in BJD. This makes all of us to work hard in a transparent and committed manner for the people of our state,” Patnaik said.
