BHUBANESWAR: Without any limitations imposed by Covid-19, the Odisha Legislative Assembly's winter session got underway on Thursday. The current session will run through December 31.

As planned, the House opened its sessions at 11 a.m. with tributes to former members Golak Bihari Naik, Kapil Narayan Tiwari, Gopanarayan Das, and Adikanda Sethi as well as deceased sitting MLAs Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha and Bishnu Charan Sethi.

CM Naveen Patnaik moved the condolence motion,  and backed by the speaker, B.K. Rukha, the leader of the opposition, Jayanarayan Mishra, the leader of the Congress legislative party, Narasingha Mishra, and CPI (M) MLA Laxman Munda.

The House observed a minute of silence to show respect for the late leaders. The Speaker then called the meeting to adjourn until 5 p.m.

The Assembly operated under Covid-19 limitations from the start of the pandemic until the end of the most recent session. The MLAs were watching the proceedings from various House galleries, district headquarters, and state secretariat locations. Patnaik frequently participated in House meetings online.

The participants in this meeting are seated in their appropriate chairs. On account of their health, the Speaker has still permitted Chief Minister Prafulla Mallick and MLA Prafulla Samal to virtually attend House sessions. The chief minister was physically present in the Assembly today.

On the opening day of the session, only a small portion of the BJD members who were in power were present in the House. Numerous members of the ruling party are reportedly busy preparing for the December 5 by-election in Padampur.

The second half of the session will see the presentation of the supplemental budget for the fiscal year 2022–2023 to the House.

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