BHUBANESWAR: At a time when the demand to create a new district from Padampur has heated up the bypoll scene in the Assembly constituency, minister of revenue and disaster management Pramila Mallick on Thursday said the government has received no such proposal in this regard.
Replying to a question by Raj Kishore Das of BJD, the minister said 17 new districts were created in the state taking into consideration proposals received in 1992 and 1993 in this regard. No decision was taken at the time to carve out Rairangpur district, she added.
The minister said the state government has received a demand to create Rairangpur district by including Karanjia. But there is no proposal before the government in this regard. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had assured granting district status to Padampur sub-division by December 31, 2023. A separate Padampur district has been a long-standing demand of the people of the area.
The chief minister had given the assurance after a meeting with members of the action committee on district status to Padampur in the presence of finance minister Niranjan Pujari. Padampur district will have to be carved out from Bargarh.