Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday shot off another letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to personally intervene and take appropriate steps for according Special Category State status to Odisha.
This letter was written even as the ruling BJD is carrying out a public campaign to collect one crore signatures to turn the heat on the Centre on the issue.
Patnaik’s letter to the Prime Minister reiterated that Odisha meets all the criteria of a Special Category State, except that it has no international border with any country. The letter, however, pointed out that Odisha having a vast coastline is vulnerable to threats from foreign countries.
The Chief Minister informed the Prime Minister that the Odisha legislative Assembly (OlA) on April 4, 2013, has adopted a unanimous resolution urging the Central Government to declare Odisha as a Special Category State.
The OlA in its resolution stated, “This House resolves to recommend the State Government to urge upon the Central Government to declare Odisha as a Special Category State as a measure of removing regional imbalance and provide additional Central grants and fiscal incentives for its development.”
Patnak’s letter said Odisha has been repeatedly requesting the Union Government in this regard, citing that the State has a high concentration of ST and SC populations along with prevalent poverty. The State has very adverse socioeconomic and human development indicators, on the basis of which the State deserves Special Category Status, he reasoned.
In respect of several economic and human development indicators, Odisha’s position is much below the level of several Special Category States and also national average, pointed Patnaik.
Declaring Odisha as a Special Category State would entitle it to availing of adequate resources from the Centre to go ahead in accelerating the development process and addressing the special needs of the Dtate, said the Chief Minister.