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Odisha assembly session begins next week; 2 farm, 1 labour bill on agenda

Hindustan Times, Bhubaneswar | ByDebabrata Mohanty
Sep 25, 2020 11:24 PM IST

Assembly speaker Patro said to ensure that no Covid-19 infected person enters the assembly, RT-PCR test of all MLAs and their staff will begin from Saturday morning and sitting arrangements have been made keeping in view the social distancing norm

The Odisha government would bring 12 bills replacing 12 ordinances, including three on contract farming, APMC regulation and allowing companies to sack its workers or close down its units, during the monsoon session of the state state assembly beginning on September 29.

The assembly session would be very short in view of the rising infections among the MLAs and ministers with half of the 147 members of the Assembly testing positive for Covid-19. At an all-party meeting convened by speaker Surya Patro on Friday to discuss the conduct of the session, it was decided that there would be no Question Hour and the House will run for four hours everyday. The House will run on Sunday too.

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The bills are Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (promotion and facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming Services (promotion and facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 and Industrial Disputes Odisha Amendment Ordinance, 2020.

The Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 aims at registration of farmers with contract farming companies for improving production and productivity by way of land, soil management, seeds, saplings, fingerlings, inputs, feed and fodder, technology and other such services much like the the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill that was passed by Parliament early this week.

The Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (promotion and facilitation) Bill, 2020 seeks to amend the Odisha Agricultural Produce Markets Amendment Act, 1957 so as to provide for geographically restriction-free trade and transaction of agricultural produce including livestock across the state and country.

The new Bill once passed, would remove the necessity of market yards or sub-market yards, for conducting agriculture marketing activities. Instead there would be a principal market yard and sub-market yard managed by the APMC, a private market yard managed by a person holding a licence granted by the director of Agriculture Marketing and electronic trading platforms (where trading of notified produce is done electronically through the internet).

Another important legislation that would be tabled during the monsoon session is Industrial Disputes Odisha Amendment Bill 2020 that exempts a sizable portion of small factories from the purview of Factories Act, 1948, and allows companies with up to 300 workers to sack people or close down units without prior approval of the government. The amendment is seen as a major step to facilitate investment, generate employment and counter the hardships caused to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) due to covid-19 pandemic by way of creating a more conducive and business friendly atmosphere.

Another important Bill that the state government plans to bring is Epidemic Disease Amendment Bill, 2020 to amend Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 for increasing the imprisonment to two years or with fine which may extend up to 1 lakh over non-adherence of Covid-19 guidelines. The amendment is seen as significant as Covid-19 caseload in Odisha has crossed 2 lakh putting the state among top 8 Covid affected states of the country.

Assembly speaker Patro said to ensure that no Covid-19 infected person enters the assembly, RT-PCR test of all MLAs and their staff will begin from Saturday morning and sitting arrangements have been made keeping in view the social distancing norm. There would be another round of RT-PCR tests 5 days after the session begins. Those MLAs who can’t come to attend the session can join it from their respective districts through video conferencing facility from district headquarters.

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