BHUBANESWAR:Even as boycott of the meeting of the governing council of the NITI Aayog at New Delhi by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday sparked off a war of words between the BJD and BJP, Naveen reiterated the demand for special category State status for Odisha to fast track the ongoing development.
“With a high percentage of population belonging to scheduled tribes and scheduled castes and the State facing frequent natural calamities, Odisha deserves to be accorded special category status to fast track the ongoing development and may be treated at par with north-eastern and Himalayan States for sharing pattern of Centrally sponsored schemes,” the Chief Minister said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 16 which was released on Monday.
The Chief Minister demanded a national policy on loan waiver to relieve farmers from agrarian distress. “The State Government would be willing to support any initiative taken by the Centre in this direction,” he said and added that apart from assured and remunerative marketing, policy reforms are also needed to provide access, adequacy and timeliness of institutional credit.
Besides, he suggested creation of a credit guarantee trust for agriculture (CGTA) on the lines of credit guarantee trust for micro and small enterprise (CGTMSE) through which collateral free agricultural loans upto `50 lakh and collateral free crop loans upto `2 lakh could be extended. He said recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee on farmers should be implemented in right earnest on a fast track mode to have holistic development and transformation of the agriculture sector.
The Chief Minister welcomed the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS). He, however, said there should be a move towards a system of near universal coverage. Stating that dependence of NHPS on SECC data will be a serious handicap in achieving this, he said the SECC survey done on the criteria fixed by the UPA Government has grave lacunae and many genuine poor have been left out.
Naveen said about 40 lakh people (8 lakh families) who are already covered under the health assistance schemes of the State Government will be left out if the SECC data is taken as the base. Stating that the Odisha Government has announced a health assurance scheme to cover nearly 70 lakh families, he said, “We well still be willing to consider joining NHPS in due course if the concerns of the State are addressed adequately.”