The Utkal Gandhi Smarak Nidhi (UGSN) has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to announce prohibition across the State on the occasion of the Biju Patnaik birth centenary celebrations.
UGSN president Prahallad Sinha in an open letter to the CM said his organisation has been eagerly waiting for an announcement in this regard during the birth centenary celebration year, which will end on March 5.
“But it is peeved as no steps have been taken so far,” Sinha said in his letter. He said that in the 1990s the then CM Biju Patnaik had realised the menace of proliferation of liquor vends and manufacturing units across the State. Patnaik had also banned country liquor and Mahuli to curb the menace, Sinha pointed out.
Sinha also urged the Chief Minister to take steps to revive industries in the State as there has been a downslide in such ventures.
“Bijubabu was instrumental in setting up of the Orissa Textile Mill at Choudwar in 1946 and a host of panchayat industries in the 1990s. But unfortunately, barring four or five units, all such panchayat industries have become defunct,” Sinha has written.