2 days Ago By Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: The BJD on Tuesday targeted the Centre for neglecting Odisha during the last 10 years by ignoring demands for special category status to the state, and revision of coal royalty. On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the biggest women-centric scheme in Odisha during his visit to Bhubaneswar, BJD leaders Sanjay Dasburma and Snehangini Chhuria told mediapersons that instead of prioritising the state, the Centre had meted out a step-motherly attitude towards it during the last decade. Stating that the BJD had been repeatedly raising the demand for special category state status to Odisha during the last two decades, the party leaders said the previous government had taken up the matter with the President of India and the NITI Aayog, and an unanimous resolution was also passed in the Assembly in this regard.
But the Centre ignored the demands, they added. “In the 2024 election, people of Odisha elected 20 BJP MPs out of 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. But the Centre’s disappointing attitude towards Odisha was exposed in the 2024-25 budget,” the BJD leaders said further pointing out that while Bihar and Andhra Pradesh got special allocation of Rs 26,000 crore and Rs 16,000 crore respectively, Odisha was neglected.
Highlighting that coal royalty has not been revised by the Centre for the last 12 years, the BJD leaders said Odisha lost revenue of Rs 10,000 crore per year on this account. “The then chief minister Naveen Patnaik had demanded revision of coal royalty from 14 per cent to 20 per cent at the Eastern Zone Council meeting but there was no response from the Centre in this regard,” they said. On Subhadra Yojana, the BJD leaders accused the BJP of cheating the women of the state as the latter would get Rs 50,000 assistance over a period of five years instead of two as previously promised.
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