BHUBANESWAR : With Northern Odisha Development Council (NODC) in the works, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said the state government is planning to bring Sundargarh district under the proposed body.
The chief minister said the process of NODC formation has made significant progress and will be completed in two to three months. “I personally want Sundargarh to be included in NODC. It will ensure rapid growth of the district,” Majhi said at a party function in the district on Sunday.
He said Sundargarh district is now part of the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC). But it will get better attention under NODC.
Majhi said the BJP government has kept its election promise by setting up a task force to work out details for the formation of a development council for northern Odisha in line with the one functioning for the western region of the state. The task force is headed by Housing and Urban Development minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra.
The other members include Higher Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj, government deputy chief whip Govinda Chandra Das, Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Keonjhar MP Ananta Nayak, Karanjia MLA Padma Charan Haiburu, Champua MLA Sanatan Mahakud, Telkoi MLA Fakir Mohan Naik and Basudevpur MLA Ashok Kumar Das.
“We are also considering establishment of a similar development council for southern Odisha to remove regional imbalance,” he added.
Creation of separate development councils for north and south Odisha to address the regional imbalances and ensure equitable development across regions was a major poll promise of the BJP.
The state government had constituted the WODC in 1998 comprising Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Subarnapur and Sundargarh districts in addition to Athamallik sub-division of Angul district.