The ruling Biju Janta Dal on Monday alleged that the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre has hatched a conspiracy to deprive Odisha of being accorded the Special Category State status as it is clearly evident form the statement of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Patna on May 11.
Addressing a Press conference, Panchayati Raj Minsiter Kalpataru Das, Government Chief Whip in Assembly Pravat Tripathy and BYJD chief and Government Deputy Chief Whip Sanjay Dasburma took a dig at Chidambaram for his statement, “As far as I know the extent of backwardness of Bihar, I am sure it will qualify to be a Special Category State by a sub-committee to be appointed under the chairmanship of Raghurama G Rajan (Economic Advisor to the Union Government).”
Terming Chidambaram’s statement as “shocking and unfortunate”, the BJD leaders alleged that this is nothing but “politically-motivated”. “When the sub-committee is not constituted and the criteria for backwardness are not fixed, such a statement is like announcing the result beforehand,” they said.
They lamented that Chidambaram has not spoken even a word about Odisha, for which the BJD has been demanding Special Category State status for several years.
Kalpataru Das said that while the BJD has been demanding special status for the State through a signature campaign and agitations, the Congress with a view to diverting its failures from public mind has resorted to a “grand design to blame Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the BJD by alleging corruption and failures of the BJD Government.
The BJD leaders were referring to AICC spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das’ recent statement that the BJD Government has many corrupt Ministers and that the State Government has been misusing huge Central funds allotted under different welfare schemes.
Kalpataru Das said that the Congress had no alternative but to support the resolution moved by the BJD in the Assembly in favour of according Special Category State status to Odisha. However, the Congress has not done anything tangible to persuade the Government of India on the issue.
He vehemently opposed the allegation of Bhkta Das and former PCC president Niranjan Patnaik that Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik is involved in corruption and shielding his tainted Ministerial colleagues.
“The whole country knows how the Congress used to shield its corrupt Ministers. The recent cases of Pawan Kumar Bansal and Aswani Kumar are glaring examples of this” Kalpataru Das said, adding the Aswani Kumar was removed from the Cabinet only after a stricture from the Supreme Court on Coalgate while Bansal was dropped after huge public outcry.