The annual Budget of Odisha has touched Rs 96, 000 crore. But the total allocation made to WODC during the last 17 years for nine districts is only `1,200 crore which is nothing but a mockery in the name of development plan,” said leader of Opposition (loP) Narasingha Mishra at afunction here.
Mishra, who happened to be the first chairman of the council, said, “The development council at Darjeeling in West Bengal comprising only one sub-division gets `56 crore in a year. But with the narrow approach in Odisha, mitigation of regional imbalance which is main aim of the WODC cannot be achieved.”
Flaying the allocation methodology of the WODC, he said, “I fail to understand why lift irrigation (lI) points have been sanctioned in Dunguripali in Binika block where the irrigation potential is more than any other part of the region. The total irrigated land in Balangir is only 3 per cent. Hence, in order to bring about uniformity, long term action plan and judicious decisions are necessary.” Mishra suggested that the WODC needs to develop the backward areas, not the developed one.
He also said that no Central project is coming to western Odisha and Balangir in particular. When the Darjeeling development council is getting direct funds from the Centre, then why not the WODC, he asked.
The loP further said that the development expenditure of Bhubaneswar town is more than the entire expenditures of all towns of Odisha. In such a situation, how other cities of Odisha can develop, he asked further.
He also came down heavily on media saying that the media only gives priority to negative news. Many important discussions in the Assembly as to WODC or High Court bench in western Odisha don’t find place in media, but news of less importance get prominence, he commented. Padmapur MlA Pradeep Purohit said that missions of the WODC have totally been defeated. Sambalpur MlA Dr Raseswar Panigrahi, however, gave a long list of the developmental works done by the WODC.