BHUBANESWAR: The Opposition BJP appears to be a divided house on the issue of a separate Koshal State. While the party is yet to take an official stand, statements by some of its western Odisha leaders are fuelling the demand of some fringe outfits for a separate statehood by carving out nine districts.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jaynarayan Mishra who hails from Sambalpur was very unambiguous in his stand as he blamed the BJD government for the visible regional imbalance between coastal and western districts.
“People living far away from the State capital feel neglected and their sentiment is genuine as the BJD government has done nothing in the last 22 years for the western region to make them happy,” he said.
Pradip Purohit, State BJP Krushak Morcha president and former MLA from Padampur in Bargarh district went a step further. He not only supported the demand for a separate Koshal State but justified it by saying that the BJP is always for smaller states and their development.
“I will welcome if a separate state is carved out of Odisha as small states are better administered. If the State government passes a resolution in the Assembly and sends it to the Centre for grant of separate statehood to Koshal, it is most welcome,” he said.
Purohit, however, put the onus on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik alleging his government’s continuous neglect of western Odisha by depriving it of a separate High Court bench, fixing the office of the Western Odisha Development Council and keeping vast agricultural land parched despite abundant river water.
While BJP MP from Bargarh Suresh Pujari did not wish to comment on such a sensitive issue saying he is not authorised by his party, on the other hand, he stated that ‘problems give rise to the demand.’
“If there is a problem, there will naturally be demand for its redressal. If successive governments failed to address the problems of the people, then they become desperate and their demands become more critical. The government must address the problems before the volcano erupts,” he said.
Both Pujari and Purohit hit out at the BJD government for not implementing the recommendations of the Ghadai Committee report submitted on September 20, 1994, and Justice SK Mohanty's commission report submitted in August 2008 on regional imbalance.
Dubbing the demand for a separate State as opportunistic politics by some leaders to stay in limelight, senior BJP leader and former MP Kharabela Swain wondered if people have so many problems, why are they even electing a large number of BJD MLAs.