 |
| Straight Talk: Jairam Ramesh |
Bhubaneswar/Berhampur, Aug. 13: Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, who raised hackles in the ruling Biju Janata Dal in his previousavatar as the minister for environment and forests, today appeared keen to dispel the impression that the Centre was neglecting Orissa.
“I do not believe that Centre is discriminating against Orissa. There is no evidence to suggest this. In fact, we recognise the special problems that the state faces,” the minister said following a review of rural development programmes with collectors of seven Naxal-affected districts in Berhampur.
Ramesh, who is on his maiden visit to the state after taking charge of the rural development ministry, said that Orissa share out of his department’s budget of Rs. 100,000 crore was about Rs. 6,000 crore, which was fair enough.
“I think that anybody who says that the Centre is not providing adequate resources to Orissa is not speaking the truth,” the minister said.
His words, however, would fail to strike a chord in the ruling BJD whose leaders continue to accuse the UPA-ruled Centre of treating Orissa shoddily as far as developmental allocation was concerned. Party supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, in fact, raised the pitch of his anti-Centre rhetoric at the BJD’s recent youth convention in Cuttack calling upon the cadres to fight the injustice being meted out to the state.
Ramesh, though, would have none of it. Significantly, his visit comes at a time when six Orissa districts — Kalahandi, Rayagada, Koraput, Nabrangpur, Balangir and Nuapada — are under the glare of a CBI probe into financial bungling in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the flagship scheme of the Union rural development ministry.
Making an oblique reference to the probe, Ramesh sought to underscore the importance of the programme as a tool of development while admitting at the same time that there had been instances of misuse and irregularities.
No comments:
Post a Comment