BHUBANESWAR:After rejecting Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Yojana by launching its own health assurance scheme and questioning appointment of officers by the Centre for aspirational districts, the BJD-ruled State Government is now face-to-face with the BJP-ruled Centre again as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has decided not to attend the governing council meeting of NITI Aayog again to be held at New Delhi on June 17.
The meeting, to be presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will not be represented by any minister from Odisha. Though the move has drawn criticism from opposition Congress and BJP, Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera justified the act by stating that attending the governing council meeting of NITI Aayog is not mandatory.
However, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan criticised the State Government’s move and said it is meant to cover up the failure. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik said such a tradition of not attending a meeting of the Centre is not good for democracy. Spokesperson of the State BJP Golak Mohapatra alleged that by deciding to not attend the meeting, the Chief Minister has proved that he does not want development of Odisha.
Sources said the governing council will discuss special development needs of the aspirational districts, the issue of frequent transfer of district collector will crop up during the deliberations. The issue has already been raised by the visiting Prabhari officers of aspirational districts in their tour notes. The officers have reportedly pointed out that district collectors and other district level officers are frequently changed and they do not have a stable tenure.
Odisha has got 10 aspirational districts which are backward and collectors of these districts need a stable tenure for implementation of development programmes. Aayog has also asked the State Government to provide flexibility to the district-level officers to scale up developmental initiatives.
The issue of large scale vacancies in these districts have also been raised.Sources said Aayog has asked the State Governments to draw up an action plan to fill up the vacancies in key departments through rationalisation and recruitment.Meanwhile, sources said increasing interference of the Centre at district level may have led the Chief Minister to decide to not attend the meeting.