Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranjan Patnaik on Wednesday met President Pranab Mukherjee at the Raj Bhavan here and submitted a memorandum urging him to grant Special Category State status for Odisha.
“Even after 66 years of Independence, Odisha lags behind the national average on almost all development indicators and the gap between Odisha and prosperous States has been widening,” said Patnaik. He also said 22 out of the State’s 30 districts have been affected by Maoist violence, which is largely caused by development and governance deficits.
Bestowing of the Special Category status to the State is necessary, considering the acute backwardness, low per capita income, increasing poverty ratio, unemployment among others, the memorandum said.
Recently, substantial allocation under BRGF has been made for Bihar and Bundelkhand region while Odisha has received a smaller share for the most backward KBK districts. This has raised a feeling of injustice among the people and fuelled greater expectations for higher Central allocations and Special Category status, the memorandum said.
Patnaik also said that while it is true that the UPA Government has been providing substantial assistance to Odisha under various Central schemes, the State has miserably failed to use the funds. Along with various scams and scandals, improper utilisation of Central funds has become rampant in Odisha under the BJD Government, he added.
He added, “The inefficiency and bad governance of the State Government should not deprive the people of receiving higher transfers (of resources) and more favourable investment regime that the Special Category status would bring about.”