Odisha opposes merger of Bhubaneswar CWC office with Patna region

Bhubaneswar: In view of resentment by various quarters against merger of regional office of Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) with Patna region, Odisha government opposed the Centre’s move.

In a letter to Union Miniser for consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, Odisha Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Co-operation Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain wrote, “The recent decision for merger of Bhubaneswar and Patna regions into a single entity and renaming it as Patna region with headquarters at Patna in the state of Bihar will seriously jeopardise the interest of people of Odisha.”

Predicting several issues due to the move, the state minister said that monitoring various activities including scientific storage from Patna will be extremely difficult and the progress of warehouse operations in Odisha will be seriously hampered following which the CWC will ultimately incur huge loss.

Even the concern was raised by the members cutting across the party lines during the Assembly session, which was adjourned sine die yesterday ahead of schedule, against the decision of such merger.

Swain urged his Central counterpart to intervene into the matter for allowing the regional office at Bhubaneswar to continue as such in modification of the earlier decision of its merger with Patna region.

Worth mentioning, the regional office of CWC at Bhubaneswar has been playing a vital role in storage and warehousing of various commodities including food grains and notified commodities of Food Corporation of India as well as Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation.

The unit in Bhubaneswar is one of the 15 offices of CWC functioning across the country. Established in the year 1990, the office is having 90% occupancy and continuously giving profit during the last 5 years. The operational capacity of the office has been increased to 3.48 MT catering to the needs of storage at 21 locations in 15 districts spread over entire state. Currently, more than 90% employees working in Bhubaneswar Regional Office are Odia.

However, the Centre on July 26 decided for merger of the office with Patna region. Following the merger that will be executed from August 15, the office will be shifted to Patna where it will function as an institution.

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