Title - Centre hindering state development, says Naveen Patnaik

BHUBANESWAR: Taking his attack on the Congress-led UPA government a step further, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday sought more powers for the states while blaming the Centre of 'creating hurdles' in Odisha's development.Naveen, who has in recent years launched several onslaughts on the Centre's alleged neglect towards Odisha, said in a federal structure the powers of the state governments were limited, adversely impacting the development process. "The central government is creating hurdles for the states. It should not forget the states have elected governments which should be given more powers as they understand their responsibilities," he said, addressing the 15th foundation day celebrations of the BJD at the party headquarter here. "The Centre should rise above political considerations and shoulder its responsibility towards development of states," he added.The BJD supremo, who has been battling serious problems within the regional party ever since his key advisor Pyarimohan Mohapatra raised a banner of revolt against him in May, chose not to comment on the goings on within the BJD and focused on highlighting the achievements during his nearly 13-year-old regime and flayed the Centre for 'ignoring' Odisha's demands.With Pyari, who floated the Odisha Jan Morcha in October, dismissed from the BJD, several leaders like Prasanna Acharya, Damodar Rout and Prafulla Ghadai took turns to pour vitriol over him without taking his name. While they predicted doom for the Rajya Sabha member, Naveen preferred to keep mum. He, however, took potshots at the Congress over a range of issues, be it farmers, railways, windfall tax from miners or special category status for Odisha. "For farmers, we always have a sympathetic attitude. Odisha is among the few states offering low interest loans to farmers. Those terming as anti-farmer will face a boomerang effect," the BJD president noted, in an indirect dig at the Congress which has been accusing the state government of harming the farmers' cause. "The Centre's indifferent attitude in according special status to the state is a cause of concern," Naveen said.

Maintaining that Odisha has progressed in fields like poverty reduction, rural development, industrialization, education, women's empowerment and employment despite several hurdles, Naveen said the state has lost crores of rupees because the Centre does not revise mineral royalty on time. He also slammed the Centre for ignoring the state's demand for imposing tax on the super normal profits earned by mine owners.

Though Odisha contributes Rs 7,500 crore as revenue in the railway sector annually, the Centre has not even allocated 10 per cent for development of rail infrastructure in the state, he stressed, criticizing the frequent cuts in railway budget for the state. "It is painful that of the Rs 750 crore sanctioned in this year's budget for state rail projects, the Centre has slashed about Rs 280 crore in three phases. This will affect the ongoing projects," he added.

State Congress president Niranjan Patnaik dubbed Naveen's charges as 'politically motivated". "It is his political compulsion to speak against the Congress. In reality, he has not brought any vikas (development) to Odisha but sarbanash (disaster). As the main Opposition party we had failed to spread the message. But the time for parivartan (change) has come."