Bhubaneswar: Congress leader Navajyot Patnaik has written a letter welcome the initiative of the Chief Minister Mohan Majhi government to form a task force for the establishment of North Odisha Development Council. In the letter, Navajyot said that this is a useful step for the benefit of the people of North Odisha. Along with this, Navajyot said that if the North Odisha Development Council and the South Odisha Development Council are formed under the West Odisha Development Council, balanced development will be possible in the state and the development process of the backward areas will be accelerated.
He further said that Bharpur North Odisha was contributing lion’s share of revenue to the state exchequer in terms of mining, but it is lagging behind in development. Therefore, if development council is formed in North Odisha, the people of Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Keonjhar districts of North Odisha can get basic facilities. Dental problems can also be prevented.
For the development of the backward areas of the state, it was decided to set up the West Odisha Development Council on 11 November 1998 during the Congress rule. There has already been a demand to form the North Odisha Development Council including Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Keonjhar in five districts of North Odisha. A letter has also been written to former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. After the formation of the government in the state under the leadership of Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, it has been decided to form a task force to establish the North and South Odisha Development Council for balanced development. Congress leader Navajyot said that this is acceptable.
Along with this, he has also given 4 proposals to further strengthen the Development Council. Among them, there is a proposal to set up the headquarters of the council in Baltimore for administrative convenience, to set up a corpus fund of Rs. 10 thousand crores, to spend 3 thousand crores of rupees annual for development work, and to pass the North Odisha Development Council chairmanship in the upcoming assembly session. In addition, Navajyot has demanded that 20 percent of the total plan expenditure of the state budget should be spent on the material development of North Odisha.
