Continuing his scathing attack on the ruling BJD over the issue of Special Category State (SCS) status to Odisha, Union Minister Srikant Jena on Saturday ridiculed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for remaining silent on the SCS demand during the NDA regime to which his BJD was a part for six long years.
“It is quite astonishing that the BJD and its president Naveen Patnaik remained silent on the SCS demand during the NDA regime
and did not protest the then Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister’s rejection of the demand. The NDA Government had also formed guidelines to consider the SCS proposal and basing on that the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman MS Ahluwalia just rejected the State’s proposal. So why is the BJD now burning effigies of present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and AhluwaliaIJ” questioned Jena in letter to Patnaik.
Jena also stated that in order to change the SCS guidelines, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has formed a sub-committee to amend the criteria by which Bihar, Odisha and some other States would be benefited.
“While the Bihar CM has already expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister for this move, you did not extend similar thanks but, instead, the BJD is burning effigies of the PM and Sonia Gandhi,” rued Jena.
He also slammed Patnaik on the issues of non-utilisation of the Central funds and chit fund scams.
On the other hand, State Finance Minister and BJD vice-president Prasanna Acharya told Jena, “Do not become a caged parrot of Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi. You are elected from Odisha and, therefore, work for the State’s interest instead.”