BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday said the motive behind BJD’s demand for special category status to Odisha is more political in nature than to serve the interests of the people of the state.
The regional party has been raising the issue in different national forums like Finance Commission, Niti Aayog and the central government for the last 24 years despite knowing the fact that the state does not meet the criteria set out by the Finance Commission, he told the State Assembly during his reply to the debate on the Appropriation (vote-on-account) Bill, 2024,.
“Special category status to state was first recommended by the Fifth Finance Commission in 1969. There are special criteria for this such as hilly areas, low population density, border states of the country, states that are economically and infra-structurally backward and states that have no source of resource mobilisation,” the CM said.
Since Odisha does not fulfil any of these criteria, the state demand has been rejected time and again. “The demand was more political as the issue was raked up before every election by BJD for political gain. The objective of the previous government was never to protect the interest of the people of the state,” he said.
Deploring the opposition allegation that Union Budget has nothing special for Odisha despite sending 20 MPs, Majhi said the walkout by BJD members before his reply proved that they have no courage to listen to the truth.
“It is a pity that the Opposition party ran away without listening. It is pre-planned. The Biju Janata Dal has never been in the Opposition before, so now they are probably practising it.”
Responding to opposition allegation that Bihar and Andhra Pradesh got lion’s share in the central budget despite sending 12 and 16 MPs respectively, Majhi said he doubted if the BJD members have gone through the Union Budget. The state has 12.5 times more in railway budget than what it was receiving before 2014. “Is not it a special package to the state?” he asked.
The Centre allocated 9.57 lakh houses under PMAY (Gramin) in 2023-24 which was three times more than the allotment made to the state in previous years. The BJD government could not disburse a single house as they wanted to serve the party interest first, he remarked.
