BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik today reiterated the demand for special category state (SCS) status for Odisha.
Naveen raised the issue again targeting the BJP led NDA government at the Centre during the Jana Sampark Padayatra of the party in Laxmisagar area of the Capital city. “SCS state status to Odisha was in the 2014 poll manifesto of BJP. However, the party forgot its promise after coming to power,” he said.
The chief minister said youths of the state will be benefited more in terms of employment if the Centre accords SCS status to Odisha. He said, “Once Odisha gets the special category status, the State’s share in various centrally sponsored schemes will be 10 percent only instead of 50:50 so that we would be able to spend remaning funds on education, health, infrastructure and other developmental activities.”
Stating that Odisha is incurring a heavy loss due to natural disasters every year, the chief minister questioned whether occurrence of natural calamity which hits the state regularly is not a strong ground for SCS status. “People of Odisha will give a fitting reply to this in 2019 elections,” he said and added, “SCS for Odisha is our right and BJD will continue to fight for it.”