RailEnquiry

The State’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders and workers will go to New Delhi by special trains on June 8 to press their demand of Special Category State status for Odisha.The party is requisitioning special trains for the purpose, said sources in the East Coast Railway. Trainloads of party workers will accompany BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who will present a one-crore-signature memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee on June 9.Intensifying its signature drive to press the Centre for granting Special Category State status to Odisha, the BJD on Monday announced that it would organise special meetings at the grassroots level to collect signatures from people and make them aware about the issue.BJD leaders, while addressing a news conference here, also urged all the political parties to cooperate in the signature campaign for the larger interests of the State.They appealed to all the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) and urban local bodies (ULBs) to collect signatures to build pressure on the Centre to grant the special tag to the State. BJD vice-president and Minister Kalpataru Das, general secretary and Minister Debi Prasad Mishra and BYJD president and Government Deputy Chief Whip in Assembly Sanjay Dasburma held a joint Press conference to issue the appeal.

Stating that the Assembly has already adopted a unanimous resolution for declaring Odisha as a Special Category State, the leaders said all other political parties should organise similar signature drives so as to join the chorus with the BJD.

According to the agenda of the party, it would hold special meetings of all gram panchayats on May 31 to sensitise people about the need for Special Category State status while collecting their signatures. A candlelight procession would also be organised on the same day across the State.

Special meetings of the ULBs would be held on June 1, followed by candlelight procession in the evening. Besides, the party would hold special meetings of the panchayat samitis and organise candlelight processions on June 3.

“The signature campaign will end on June 7 when human chains will be orginised at strategic places across the State. A memorandum will be handed over to the BJD president and Chief Minister on June 9 at a special meeting. Later, it will be submitted to the President of India,” said the BJD leaders.

The BJD had launched the signature campaign on the birthday of Utkal Gaurab Madhusudan Das being kicked off by party Naveen Patnaik.

A fresh move by the BJD against the Centre, the signature campaign was conceived after the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on April 18 approved allocation of Rs 250 crore per annum for the Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) region of the State under the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) in the 12th Five=Year Plan while granting as much as Rs 1,200 crore to Bihar.