Twenty-four hours after calling a State-wide Hartal to protest against the Centre’s alleged discriminatory policies towards Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Sunday made yet another move to reinforce its pet slogan of the UPA Government’s “politically-motivated step-motherly attitude” towards the State.
BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik himself led a signature campaign from near the Raj Bhavan here demanding that the Centre allocate more special funds and grant Special Category State status for Odisha.
Patnaik said, “Our campaign for Special Category status for our State has been started, and we intend to collect more than one crore signatures (from among the State’s people) and send them to the President of India.”
Obviously to strike an emotional chord with the people, the BJD chose to begin the campaign on the Swabhiman Divas, the 165th birth anniversary of Utkal Gaurab Madhusudan Das, one of the builders of modern Odisha.
Centenarian freedom fighter Purusottam Nayak of Kendrapada was the first signatory to the memorandum to be submitted to the President while and nonagenarian freedom fighter Bhabani Charan Patnaik and Naveen Patnaik, respectively, were the second and third signatories.
Ministers, party MPs and MlAs and many other eminent persons, including film personalities, participated in the campaign. The BJD’s anti-Centre tirade, according to political observers, would be kept up in several other forms till the ensuing general elections as the party expects that the stand against the UPA regime in Delhi would yield it more electoral dividends than the claims on the State Government’s achievements for people’s welfare.
Biju Yuva Janata Dal president and Government Deputy Chief Whip in the Assembly Sanjay Dasburma said the party would try to undertake the signature campaign by involving other political parties in due course in the interest of the State.
His statement followed BJP leader Biswabhusan Harichandan’s question as to why a united drive is not being undertaken to fight for the cause of the State.
The opposition Congress and BJP dubbed the BJD’s move as political. Former PCC chief Jayadev Jena said the BJD is trying to hoodwink the people by organising the anti-Centre drive keeping in view the ensuing general elections.
Senior BJP leader Harichandan, taking exception to the BJD’s move, said the ruling party has made the issue a party agenda instead of making it a mass movement and apolitical. “It is a State interest-related issue and the BJD should have involved all political parties to make it a united fight against the Central neglect,” he said.
According to BJD sources, it would require around two lakh pages of a/4 size paper weighing about nine quintals for collecting signatures from one crore persons.
The BJD MPs, MlAs, elected representatives of both Panchayati Raj institutions and Urban local Bodies and State and district office-bearers have been asked to collect the signatures.
Meet on ‘cheat’ fund fraud in Odisha today
Close on the heels of the Kolkata-based Saradha group’s collapse which is believed to have wiped out Rs 20,000 crore of depositors’ money, Odisha Development Commissioner JK Mohapatra is convening a high-level meeting here on Monday with top officials of concerned departments to chalk out a plan to prevent the progress of such dubious floated companies.
“The Development Commissioner is holding a meeting with officials of Crime Branch, Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Finance and other concerned departments to rein in fraudulent non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and unincorporated bodies (UIBs),” an official source said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, following an order of the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the Special Task Force under the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) would begin its probe into the affairs of a total of 57 companies which are into illegal money-pooling activities of various entities. Most of these companies are operating in West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Assam.
The Monday meeting gains significance as the State is yet to receive approval of the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (In Financial Establishment) Bill, which was passed in the State Assembly in December 2011 and sent to the Centre for the President’s assent in April 2012.
The Bill aims at protecting the interest of depositors in NBFCs and deposit acceptance activities of UIBs.
According to officials, the legislation would not only curb illegal activities of unscrupulous NBFCs and UIBs but is also expected to protect the interests of the depositors by way of return of their deposits with benefits/interests accrued there on at the instance of the State Government.
Officials observe the Act in its present form does not have teeth to arrest the fraudulent transactions while the Bill has provisions for awarding up to 10 years of imprisonment and confiscation of the properties of the company.