Special-package call for KBK region

SUBRAT DAS

AU Singhdeo Bhubaneswar, Aug. 31: Members in the Odisha Assembly today batted for a special package for the backward undivided Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi (KBK) districts, the poverty zone of the country. Former planning minister and BJD member Anang Uday Singhdeo urged the members to rise above party lines and adopt an unanimous resolution in seeking a special package from the Centre. Singhdeo said the Odisha government had formulated an eight-year perspective plan for the KBK districts from 2009-10 to 2016-17 with a projected outlay of Rs 4,550 crore and submitted it to the Planning Commission. “The approval of the Planning Commission has not been received yet,” he said. Further, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had requested deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia to extend the long-term action plan for 10 more years from 2012-13 with higher allocation and approval of the eight-year-perspective plan. “The state government has not received any positive reply from the Planning Commission and the Centre,” said Singhdeo. He said an all-party delegation of 30 MPs from Odisha had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009 demanding a special package for the KBK region. However, the Centre had turned a deaf ear to the plea, he said. Accusing the UPA government of adopting a “step-motherly attitude” towards the KBK, the poorest region of the country, Singhdeo said the Centre was doling out special package to other states to “gain political favour”. While the Union cabinet had cleared a Rs 7,266-crore package in November 2009 for 13 districts of Bundelkhand region spread over Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved a proposal to enhance the allocation from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 2,000 crore in 2011-12 and to the extent of Rs 1,468 crore under the special plan for Bihar, he said. A special scheme called the Revised Long Term Action Plan for the KBK region has been under implementation since 1998-99. The Odisha government has received special central assistance to the tune of Rs 2,093.95 crore till 2011-12. The Centre has slashed the annual grant of Rs 250 crore to Rs 130 crore since 2007-08 crore, said the leader from the KBK region. BJP leader and Patnagarh MLA K.V. Singhdeo, who is Anang Uday’s nephew and has strained personal relations with him, supported the BJD member. He recalled that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had once told the MPs from Odisha that “money does not grow on trees”, when they had sought special package for the state. “If the Assembly moves an unanimous resolution, the BJP will support it,” he said.