BHUBANESWAR/BALANGIR: Water Resources Minister and BJD candidate from Titlagarh Assembly seat Tukuni Sahu has put her party in a spot by stating she would have resigned had Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik gone ahead with the decision to create Padampur district.
The minister was speaking at a function for felicitation of senior citizens at Titlagarh. A video of her speech has become viral in the social media in which Sahu says the demand for separate district status to Titlagarh is a long-pending one. While the demand has not been fulfilled till date, formation of Padampur district would have been injustice for residents of Titlagarh, she said.
“Those who accuse me of failing in my efforts for formation of Titlagarh district, I want to say I had mentally decided to submit my resignation to the chief minister the day Padampur district would have been announced. But the chief minister did not let me do that. If districts are formed in the state, Titlagarh will be on top of the list,” she said.
Political observers said Sahu may have made the statement to placate the voters of Titlagarh from where she is contesting, but it will have its repercussions in other seats of western Odisha region. Formation of a separate district is a major issue in this election at least in Balangir, Sambalpur and Bargarh.
The chief minister had promised to make Padampur a separate district while campaigning during bypoll to the Assembly segment following the demise of former minister Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha. Barsha Singh Bariha, daughter of Bijay Ranjan, had won in the bypoll by defeating Pradip Purohit of BJP. However, Padampur is yet to get district status.
The state government had started the preliminary exercise for conferment of district status to Padampur. However, it was stopped following Orissa High Court’s order. The state government has made no further attempts to pursue the matter and only posted an additional district magistrate at Padampur.