Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranjan Patnaik on Sunday welcomed Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s announcement of formation of a committee headed by Chief Economic Advisor to Government of India Raghuram Rajan to establish new criteria for backwardness of States. The committer has been asked to give its report within 30 days.
Patnaik expressed confidence that immediately after the committee gives its report, the criteria would be revised and Odisha would be accorded Special Category State status fulfilling a longstanding demand of the people of the State.
He also expressed concern over “misutilisation” of Central Government funds by the State’s BJD Government.
“It is true that the UPA Government has been providing substantial funds to Odisha under various Central schemes which unfortunately the State Government is not able to utilise properly and fully. Massive misutilisation of Central funds and using every subterfuge to gain political mileage from Central largesse has become commonplace in Odisha. The CAG has repeatedly castigated the State Government for misuse of Central funds. It is time a high-level fast-track inquiry was instituted to expose this massive pilferage of public money,” the PCC chief said.