BHUBANESWAR: Industries and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raghunath Mohanty on Thursday criticised the Centre for rejecting the State Government demand for according special category status to Odisha. Reacting sharply to the reply of Union Minister of State for Planning, Science and Technology Aswini Kumar in the Lok Sabha on the issue on Wednesday, Mohanty said the Congress-led UPA Government has once again proved its anti-Odisha attitude. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been demanding special category status since 2001 when the NDA was in power. The then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had turned down the State proposal saying it was not feasible. Now the UPA Government is saying the same thing. The Congress and the BJP do not want the prosperity of a backward State like Odisha despite fulfilling all the criteria for special category status, Mohanty remarked. If the Centre could consider the demand of the Bihar Government, there is absolutely no ground to reject the demand of Odisha. Apart from high incidence of poverty, the State is seriously lagging behind other states so far as economic and infrastructure development are concerned. The railway network in the State is much less compared to Bihar, he said. While 23 per cent of the State’s population are Scheduled Tribes, the limited resources generation has come in the way of rapid industrial and economic progress, the Industries Minister said. Alleging that the State is mostly neglected when Congress is in power at Centre, Mohanty said the people of the State will not forgive the party for its continued apathy. Describing the Centre’s decision as unfortunate, president of the Biju Yuba Janata Dal Sanjaya Dasbarma said his party would launch a State-wide movement against the Centre. The BJD led by legislators Ashok Panda and Bhagirathi Badjena on Thursday staged a dharna near Raj Bhawan protesting the Centre’s refusal to consider the State’s demand.
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