An Odisha Congress delegation led by President Niranjan Patnaik on Saturday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and requested him to provide a need-based special financial package for the State. Concerned over massive misuse of Central funds to the State, the delegation also urged the Prime Minister to “institute a high-level inquiry” to look into this. The delegation had also met Finance Minister P Chidambaram in this regard on Friday.
“The Prime Minister said there is no discrimination whatsoever against Odisha as is being claimed by the State Government, and under the revised guidelines of backwardness the State would get its due share,” said PCC president Patnaik after coming out of the meeting.
The delegation also comprising leader of Opposition in Assembly Bhupinder Singh, party Chief Whip in Assembly Prasad Harichandan, two former MPs Subhash Mohanty and Mrityunjay Nayak and senior leader Dr SN Das submitted a memorandum each to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister seeking their attention to the needs of Odisha and its people.
“The Prime Minister also said there is no special package proposal from Odisha for the Planning Commission and, hence, the question of discrimination does not arise. Odisha has been a priority of the UPA Government in last nine years and has received generous funds,” Patnaik quoted the PM as saying.
Patnaik said, “The UPA Government has been providing substantial funds to Odisha under various Central schemes which unfortunately the State Government is not able to utilise properly and fully. Massive misutilisation of the Central funds and using every subterfuge to gain political mileage from the Central largesse has become common practice by the BJD Government. The CAG has repeatedly castigated the State Government for misuse of Central funds. It is time that a high-level fast-track inquiry is instituted to expose this massive pilferage of public money in the State.”