Baleswar MP RK Jena on Thursday urged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to declare the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA), Bhubaneswar as the embarkment point for the Haj pilgrims of Odisha.
Raising the issued in the lok Sabha, Jena said around 600 people from Odisha travel to Haj every year for which they start travelling from Kolkata. Besides, he urged Swaraj to increase the Haj pilgrim quota for Odisha.
Jena too raised two other issues for discussion in the coming week.
He wanted that a direct passenger train run between Baleswar and Mumbai and unethical practices by the skill development implementing agencies be stopped.
Jena said thousands of people, who commute from Baleswar district to Mumbai for various reasons daily, either travel to Bhubaneswar (210 km) or to Kharagpur (125 km) to catch a train. He requested for a detail discussions on the demand.
On the second issue, he said skill development implementing agencies are adopting unethical practices and hence funds allocations be directly sent to beneficiaries instead of accounts of the private agencies. Jena too demanded a discussion on it. These issues are likely to be discussed in the coming week.