Rourkela BJP MLA Dilip Ray has demanded that Rourkela be given the district status and other large tribal districts like Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj be reorganised into a few more districts.
Ray said that during the premiership of Biju Patnaik between 1990 and 1995, a historic decision had been taken to create 30 districts from the existing 13. Besides, there were proposals to create three more districts, including Rourkela.
While Puri was split into three districts, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Koraput were split into four districts each and other districts were also reorganised into smaller districts. However, large districts like Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj were spared. It was proposed to reorganise them if Bijubabu would come to power in 1995, which did not happen.
Ray who was also the Industry Minister during the Biju Patnaik Government raised the issue of giving district status to Rourkela, besides reorganising Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts in the Assembly recently and in response, Revenue Minister Maheswar Mohanty informed that there was no such proposal under consideration of the Government.
Attracting the attention of the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Ray in a Press brief told that Rourkela is a special police district. The additional Collector office is also located in the steel city. Rourkela has suitable infrastructure to get the district status. This part, the people’s representatives of the civic bodies and panchayats within Rourkela too demand the district status. Ray told that the tribal Sundargarh district can achieve faster growth if reorganised and power decentralised.