Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Adhikar rally had its echo here. Cutting across party line, members in the Odisha Assembly on Monday urged the Union Government to accord special status to Odisha as the ruling BJD members asked the Congress members to persuade their bosses at the Centre to get it in the interest of the people of the State.
However, the Treasury Bench members flayed the opposition Congress members for their suggestion to emulate Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to organise a massive Swambiman rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi to put pressure on the Union Government to accord the special category State status to Odisha. During the Zero hour, senior Congress member Santosh Singh Saluja raised the issue referring to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Adhikar rally in Delhi. He said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik should organize a similar rally at Ramalila Maidan invoking Odia pride to demand special State status. “We the Congress people would also join the Swaviman rally for the interest of Odisha shedding the petty party politics,” Saluja maintained.
Since the UPA Government has already announced in the 2013-24 Budget that the existing criteria would be amended to enable more backward States to get the special category status for achieving all round development, Saluja urged the Chief Minister to announce that he would support any Government at the Center led by any party, which would accord special status to Odisha.
However, Saluja got flak from the Treasury Bench members for his unsolicited suggestion. Ruling party members Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, Amar Satapathy, Pravat Ranjan Biswal, Bed Prakash Agrawal and Prasanta Nanda said that it was the Congress party in Odisha which lacked Odia pride (Swaviman) to raise the issue of special status for Odisha before the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre. Saluja should refrain from giving advice the Chief Minister for achieving the demand of special status to the State, they said.
Stating that the issue of special category status to Odisha was in the manifesto of the BJD, Prasanta Nanda said that there was no mention of the issue in Congress election manifesto even in 2009. He said that Swaviman had been alien to Congress and wanted to know how many times the State Congress leaders raised the special category status for Odisha before their Central leaders and the Prime Minister.