The Assembly on Thursday adopted an official sponsored resolution unanimously with a rare show of solidarity by members cutting across party line recommending the State Government to urge upon the Centre to declare Odisha as a special category State. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while moving the resolution, asserted the status for the State a matter of right and a national priority.
He demanded that the Government of India must revisit and modify the criteria for States to achieve the status which would enable less developed States like Odisha to get liberal Central assistance and reasonable tax concessions to create more job opportunities, thereby fulfilling the aspirations of the people of the State.
However, the unanimity was reached after over seven hours of marathon debate. This is the third resolution in the Assembly passed unanimously demanding special category status for the State. Announcing the adoption of the resolution, Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat said that the House resolved to recommend the State Government to urge upon the Centre to declare Odisha as special category State as a measure of removing regional imbalance and providing additional Central grants and fiscal incentives for its development.
The opposition Congress members, however, said that though the present Government had brought the resolution with a vested political interest, yet considering the importance of the matter, they extended their support.
However, Chief Minister Patnaik, replying in the debate, slammed the Union Government for resorting to political bargaining in announcing to consider modifying the criteria for according special category status to certain States, including Odisha.
He sought to know if the Center is indeed keen on revising the criteria for the special category status.
He regretted that an impression had been created that the Center had been considering modifying the criteria for according the status to certain States although in almost all sectors, Odisha has unfavourable indicators compared to those States. Patnaik in his reply said the criteria for according special category status to a State should be redefined so that less developed States should be given special dispensation.
Asserting that the demand of Odisha for special category status is very old and fully justified, Patnaik said that the State Government had been raising the issue in various forums like the Planning Commission and the National Development Council.
He said despite the fact that the present Government had taken appropriate measures to improve the fiscal situation of the debt-stressed economy, Odisha's economic base is still comparatively small and the State is vulnerable to frequent natural calamities.
To make good his point, Patnaik said the long pending demand for declaring Odisha as a special category State has not yet been favourably considered by the Centre though the State satisfies most of the criteria except having an international boundary. He came down heavily on Centre for adopting a very rigid approach which is not desirable.
Odisha's socio-economic and human development indicators are also much lower than the national averages and also those of most special category States, he pointed out.
lamenting that Odisha has historically faced several disadvantages vis-à-vis other developed States, he said that the major one being the introduction of the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) by the Central Government in early 1960s. The demand for special category status is to undo some of the damage that Odisha suffered as a result of the FEP for almost three years, he asserted.
He said the FEP systematically discriminated the mineral rich eastern States including Odisha and did not encourage private investment to promote industrialisation of the State. The Chief Minister said that there was a need for more vigorous and concerted efforts of all concerned to seek the status for Odisha with a view to improving the socio-economic condition of more than four crore people.