Odisha MP Sasmit Patra raises ‘special focus’ state demand in Rajya Sabha

BHUBANESWAR: Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra (BJD) on Wednesday demanded ‘special focus’ state status for Odisha in view of damages caused by cyclone Fani and funds in the ratio of 90 per cent by the Centre and 10 per cent by the state for centrally-sponsored projects.
Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Patra said there is a necessity to provide more funds to any state hit by natural calamity, just like to states with special category status, to ensure that calamity-hit states take appropriate relief and restoration measures.
“Natural calamities are under the governance of no government. In Odisha, recently, we faced cyclone Fani which destroyed millions of trees and about 5.6 lakh houses and has caused large-scale damage to public property. I highlighted the same in the upper house,” Patra told TOI.
Since the special category status doesn’t consider natural calamity as a criteria, the government should allow natural calamity as a special provision to be added into the special category status, he said.
Several Rajya Sabha members cutting across party lines, such as N Bhaskar Rao (Odisha), B K Hariprasad (Karnataka), K K Rahesh (Kerala), Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Ahamed Hassan (West Bengal), among many others endorsed Patra’s views.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had taken up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.
On Monday, Union minister of state for finance Anurag Singh Thakur had told Lok Sabha that the Centre is not considering any proposal to grant special category status to Odisha and there was no move to increase the Centre’s share of funds for centrally sponsored schemes in Odisha.
Thakur had said this in a written reply to a question by BJD MP Ramesh Chandra Majhi.