Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to allow any upper-catchment projects in the Mahanadi basin to safeguard the interests of millions of farmers in Odisha.
“Mahanadi is the lifeline of Odisha and the lives and livelihood of farmers of 15 districts and 65 per cent of population are directly or indirectly impacted by the river. I would request the Prime Minister not to allow any upper-catchment projects in the Mahanadi basin to safeguard the interests of millions of farmers in Odisha,” said Chief Minister while speaking at the Inter-State Council Meeting held in New Delhi.
He also drew the attention of the PM to the Centre declaring the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh as a national project despite its serious consequences on the livelihoods of a large number of tribal families in Odisha and reiterated the State’s demand in this regard.
The Chief Minister said the inter-State Council should meet regularly at shorter intervals to deliberate on critical issues concerning Centre-State relations.
Patnaik stated that the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission on Centre-State relations have been duly considered by Odisha and the views of the State were furnished to the Central Government in April 2015.
He underlined the need to improve bank coverage in the uncovered gram panchayats of the State in a time-bound manner and to expedite the rollout of Bharatnet project to provide broadband connectivity up to gram panchayat level.
Stating that the leftwing extremism poses the biggest threat to the internal security of the State, he urged the Centre to ensure a balanced and equitable deployment of Central forces among the concerned States in order to prevent cross-border spillage of the Maoists. He also asked the Centre to restore the earlier funding pattern under the modernisation programme of police force.
He reiterated the State’s demand to raise the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs2,500 per quintal. He said an increased MSP would mitigate the sufferings of farmers.
Patnaik stated that the discontinuance of Central assistance for the Special Plan for KBK, Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) and Integrated Action Plan (IAP) is severely impacting the most vulnerable population and the backward regions of Odisha and urged upon the Prime Minister to restore Central assistance for these programmes.
Further, highlighting that Odisha continues to suffer from historical neglect in both road and rail communication, the CM stated that the Railways should now expedite project implementation of long-pending projects as Odisha has proactively come forward to participate financially in these projects.
He reiterated his request that the Centre should share at least 60 per cent of the collected cess with the coal-bearing States.