Patnaik asks party MPs to take up Odisha issues in Parliament

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik today appealed to the party MPs to take up issues concerning Odisha in the upcoming Parliament Session, in a virtual meeting held here.

“We are neglected in the matters of Railways, Banking, Tele-density, payment of Coal royalty and Clean Energy cess, including the construction of Coastal Highway. All the above critically important issues concerning the interest of Odisha need to be raised in the Parliament,” Patnaik expressed.

In course of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 30 at New Delhi, the CM Patnaik had discussed several issues pertaining to the State’s interest and sought the support of the Central Government on all these issues.

“I would impress upon all of you to take up all the pending issues with the concerned ministries, so that these are sorted out in a time bound manner,” Odisha CM advised his party colleagues.

“Our proposal for speeding up of pending railway projects in the State, implementation of Swaminathan Committee recommendations on minimum support price for paddy in the interest of our farmers, 33% reservation for women in both Assembly and Parliament, constitution of Odisha Legislative Council, our demand for Special Category Status and inclusion of the ‘Ho’ language in the 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution needs to be followed up and pursued rigorously,” Patnaik added.

Chief Minister reminded the BJD parliamentarians about his recent letters written to the Prime Minister on evacuation of 5 lakh Metric Tonne (MT) of surplus fortified parboiled rice from the state for the KMS 21-22, withdrawal of export duty on ‘below 58%’ grade ore and pellets, sanction of 1.84 lakh PMAY (G) (special houses) to the cyclone Fani affected families and to migrate 5.09 lakh data from the RH Portal to PWL through Awaas Plus yojana.

Patnaik has also written letters to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on exemption of DMF trust from the purview of Income Tax from FY 2022-23 onwards.

Notably, Patnaik had termed Draupadi Murmu as daughter of Odisha, who has been nominated to highest office of the country. “It is indeed a matter of honour and pride for our State. On behalf of the people of Odisha and BJD, we need to extend our full support to her candidature in the Presidential Election to be held on July 18,” the Chief Minister concluded.