In a major step to strengthen legislative oversight, the Odisha Legislative Assembly has constituted various committees for the financial year 2026-27.
The Vidhan Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing the formation of standing committees, departmental committees, and house committees under the leadership of Speaker Surama Padhy.
The most significant appointment is that of Pramila Mallik, the Opposition Chief Whip, as Chairperson of the powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The 12-member committee includes several Congress MLAs — Ramchandra Kadam, Arun Kumar Sahu, Ganeswar Behera, Sanatan Bijuli, Akash Dasnayak, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, Ashok Mohanty, Babu Singh, Santosh Khatua, Amar Nayak, and Aravind Mahapatra.
Rules Committee will be chaired by Speaker Surama Padhy herself, with members including Minister Dr Mukesh Mahaling, Prithviraj Harichandan, Government Chief Whip Saroj Kumar Pradhan, Pratap Keshari Deb, Tusharkanti Behera, and Sagar Charan Das.
Other key appointments include:
- Committee on Privileges (Swadhikar Committee): Chairperson Jayanarayan Mishra
- Public Undertakings Committee: Chairperson Padmalochan Panda
- SC/ST Welfare Committee: Chairperson Bhaskar Maidei
- Subordinate Legislation Committee: Chairperson Irasis Acharya
- Petitions Committee: Chairperson Prashant Kumar Jagadev
- Committee on Papers Laid: Chairperson Dushmant Kumar Swain
- Committee on Government Assurances: Chairperson Ashok Mohanty
- Library Committee: Chairperson Akash Dasnayak
- Women and Child Welfare Committee: Chairperson Simarani Nayak
Eight Departmental Standing Committees have also been formed with chairpersons Sidhant Mahapatra, Santosh Khatua, Babu Singh, Purnachandra Sethi, Bibhuti Bhushan Pradhan, Sudhir Ranjan Pattajoshi, Manohar Randhari, and Sanatan Bijuli.
Additionally, several House and Special Committees have been constituted to examine critical issues such as the Mahanadi water dispute, Jagannath Temple development, environmental pollution, displacement and rehabilitation, railway development, border disputes, electricity distribution, and problems faced by linguistic minorities.
These committees will scrutinise government functioning, examine reports, and submit recommendations to the Assembly.
The formation comes after the previous committees’ term ended on March 31. The more than two-month delay had drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties BJD and Congress, who wrote multiple letters to the Governor seeking his intervention.
The new committees are expected to play a vital role in ensuring accountability and effective legislative scrutiny in the coming year.
