Protesting against the Union Government’s recent disapproval of Special Category State Status to Odisha, the BJD youth wing on Thursday took to the streets and began its three-day demonstration across the State.
In Bhubaneswar, hundreds of BJD workers led by two city MlAs Ashok Panda and Bijay Mohanty staged a demonstration in front of the Additional District Magistrate’s office shouting the Centre’s “step-motherly treatment” towards the State.
“The people of the State will not tolerate such type of step-motherly treatment. We do not receive anything from the Centre as charity. When the State is giving all types of taxes and mining royalties to the Centre regularly, why it should not be considered for the Special Status category," asked Panda.
In Baripada, shouting anti-UPA Government slogans, BJD youth wing president Sanjay Dasburma, Mayurbhanj MP laxman Tudu along with more than a hundred of party activists staged a demonstration in front of the Mayurbhanj Collectorate and threatened to resort to mass agitation in future.
Similarly, party activists in Cuttack and Baleswar burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Pro-BJD Yuva Odisha also condemned Union Government’s rejection of the Special Category Status to the State. “While Finance Minister P Chidambaram recently named a committee to prepare new guidelines for Special Category State Status then on what ground the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman disapproved the State’s demand,” questioned Yuva Odisha president Tejeswar Parida at a Press conference in Bhubaneswar.
He said, “A mega rally will be organsied soon in New Delhi to protest the apathetic attitude of the Union Government.”
Notably, in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman MS Ahluwalia on Wednesday said that under the existing criteria approved by the National Development Council, Odisha does not qualify for grant of Special Category State status.