BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took up the issues of Shri Jagannath International Airport at Puri, expansion of telecom connectivity and banking facilities in the state during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi on Thursday.
“The discussions were mostly related to Odisha’s demands. I spoke to him about Shri Jagannath International Airport (SJIA) which we plan to set up in Puri. We have already identified land for the airport and delineated the boundary. There has been an increase in air traffic to Bhubaneswar and we definitely want an expansion. The prime minister assured help in every way possible,” the chief minister told mediapersons after the meeting.
The chief minister submitted a memorandum to the prime minister urging his intervention on several issues of importance for the state including site clearance for SJIA from Ministry of Civil Aviation which is pending since September, 2022. He urged the prime minister for taking steps to expedite the matter.
The chief minister also requested the prime minister to extend the ‘Udyami’ scheme and provision of five free telephone connections in each gram panchayat (GP) under Bharat Net Phase-II. A detailed project report (DPR) for expanding Bharat Net from gram panchayats to villages was submitted to the department of Telecommunications (DOT). But no decision on the matter has been taken so far.
The DPR for converting the Bharat Net linear network to an internet protocol multi-protocol label switching (IPMPLS) ring network and extending the same to districts and the state capital, submitted by the state government to the DOT has been rejected. “A decision on IPMPLS needs to be taken by DOT for Odisha which is frequented by natural calamities like flood and cyclone,” Naveen said.
The chief minister also demanded opening of more bank branches in unbanked gram panchayats of the state. He said the department of Financial Services under the Union Finance Ministry may put in place a two year plan for covering all unbanked gram panchayats of the state. Odisha has 6,798 gram panchayats of which 2,844 (42 per cent) are covered by 5,774 brick and mortar branches. The rest 3,954 panchayats are covered by business correspondents (BCs)/communications service providers (CSPs) and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) access points.
The chief minister said in order to avoid inconvenience to the elderly and persons with disability who are unable to visit bank/BC points for receiving cash, relaxation should be granted for disbursement of pension in cash to maximum of 20 per cent of the beneficiaries under national social assistance programme. He also referred to the eight incomplete NH projects in the state which were started in 2017 and 2018.