A joint meeting of intellectuals, businessmen, senior citizens and members of various social organisations convened by Mahan Sangh president Sushant Sabat discussed about all-round development of south Odisha in general and Brahmapur city in particular here on Sunday.
Prior to the meeting, they paid rich tribute to former President and renowned scientist APJ Abdul Kalam and observed a two-minute silent prayer in his respect.
They alleged that step-motherly attitude of the successive Governments, lack of leadership and lack of unity among local people have forced the silk city to remain neglected for years.
Sabat appealed to the members to rise above party lines and get united to work for the all round development of south Odisha which has rich heritage, culture and natural resources.
Issues like uninterrupted supply of piped drinking water, development of rail-connectivity, improvement in healthcare system at the MKCG Medical College Hospital, implementation of the Tata project and inclusion of the silk city under the Union Government’s Smart City scheme were discussed.
The members unanimously demanded that the State Government constitute a “Dakshina Odisha Vikash Parishad” (South Odisha Development Council) with special budgetary allocations and headquarter the same at Brahmapur.
Among others, PSN Rao, Chandrsekhar Patra, Manmohan Padhi, Hariprasad Mallan, Bhismacharya Choudhury, Ramesh Chandra Sahu, Mahendra Kumar Patra, Raja Choudhury, Niranjan
Jena, Soumik Sahu, Basant Kumar Pattnaik and Rajendra Kumar Panda belonging to various organisations were present.