‘Discontinuance of Central aid impacting most vulnerable population in Odisha’

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
New Delhi/Bhubaneswar, July 16:

Discontinuation of Central assistance is severely impacting the most vulnerable population and the backward regions of the state, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed during the inter-state council meeting at New Delhi today.

Pic Courtesy: www.swostitravels.com
Pic Courtesy: www.swostitravels.com

“Discontinuance of Central assistance for key area development programmes like special plan for KBK, Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) and Integrated Action Plan (IAP) are severely impacting the most vulnerable population and the backward regions of Odisha. I urge upon the Prime Minister to restore Central assistance for these programmes,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said.

Patnaik further stated that the Clean Environment Cess collected from the state abundant in natural resources is not being disbursed to it affecting the development of the people affected due to coal mining.

“Despite being a mineral-rich state, it continues to suffer from negative externalities caused by coal mines, coal-based power plants and non-revision of royalty on coal even after more than four years adding that the ‘Clean Environment Cess’ of Rs.400 per tonne levied by the Union government, which is four times of the royalty earned by the state, is not being shared with the coal bearing states. People of coal bearing states who are affected by pollution, transport problems, human displacement and other problems related to coal mining should be benefited by the cess. I reiterate the request made on earlier occasions that the Union government should share at least 60 percent of the collected cess with the coal-bearing states,” Patnaik demanded.

Besides, the Chief Minister expressed his reservations at the introduction of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for disbursal of pensions.

He highlighted that Odisha has 44 lakh pensioners with many residing in the remotest parts of the state and state’s pension distribution system entailing a fixed day approach for disbursal at the Gram Panchayat headquarters has been appreciated widely as one of the finest disbursal systems in the country. He added that the doorstep banking including the banking correspondent model or the post office have been tried out without much success and these bring in the same problems which the state is trying to eliminate, i.e. the rent-seeking behaviour and delays. He desired that the present social security scheme of Odisha which stresses on the role of Panchayats, therefore should be continued as such.

The Chief Minister informed the Council that Odisha has launched Ujwal and Utkarsh schemes for elementary and secondary school students respectively for improving the quality of education and learning outcomes in the state. Further, Odisha plans to set up CBSE affiliated model schools in all blocks of the state and has already made 100 model schools functional from the current year. He underlined that the delinking of the scheme of model schools for educationally backward blocks by the Union government has further strained the state’s resources by putting an additional burden of over Rs.160 crore towards capital cost and urged upon the Union government to continue with this initiative.

Further, highlighting that Odisha continues to suffer from historical neglect in both road and rail communication, the Chief Minister stated that the Railways should now expedite project implementation of long-pending projects as Odisha has proactively come forward to participate financially in these projects.

Chief Minister mentioned that Odisha as a federal unit stands committed to accelerate the pace of socio-economic inclusive development and contribute to Nation building and looks forward to the Union government to support the state’s endeavours.

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