Seeking special category status for his State, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here but skirted the issue of allying with the NDA even as his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa, seen as another potential partner, is also to meet Modi on Tuesday.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy too called on the Prime Minister at his South Block office here for 15 minutes. Patnaik led a delegation of his party MPs to Modi and discussed issues related to his State and the requirement of central assistance, including in the field of railways.
After the 30-minute meeting, he said Modi was “quite positive” to the demands and hoped that the NDA Government would treat Odisha better than the previous UPA regime.
In his first meeting with the Prime Minister, Patnaik raised the issue of granting special category status to Odisha and scrapping of the controversial Polavaram project situated on the border between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Odisha fears the project would submerge 130-odd villages in the Malkangiri district and lakhs of hectors of land.
The Chief Minister urged Modi to “recognise the genuine concern of Odisha on submergence and flooding of Malkangiri and to halt the Polavaram project”. Patnaik said the State Government has already taken the matter to the Supreme Court. After the meeting, he said he hoped he would get a positive response from the Prime Minister to the demands.
“I certainly hope. The Prime Minister was quite positive to our demands,” he said when asked if Odisha will get a better treatment from the Modi Government in comparison to the previous UPA Government.
On whether his party BJD would ally with NDA, Patnaik said he has not given a thought to it. He maintained that the issue did not come up during his meeting with Modi.
like Patnaik, Kerala Chief Minister also reportedly raised with Modi the implementation of Western Ghats report saying the committee report should not be implemented in view of the concerns of the people living in high range areas, said Ommen Chandy
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister is to meet Prime Minister on June 3 where the future relationship of AIADMK with the BJP-led-Government at the Centre may also come up for the discussion.
Jayalalithaa had boycotted Modi’s swearing-in ceremony protesting his decision to invite Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at his oath-taking on May 26. Chandy had also skipped Prime Minister’s swearing-in here at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.