Congress flays Naveen Patnaik for making a mess of WODC
Congress on Tuesday flayed the ruling Biju Janata Dal government of converting the WODC to a rehabilitation centre.
By Nageshwar Patnaik, ET Bureau | Updated:
BHUBANESWAR: The opposition Congress on Tuesday flayed the ruling Biju Janata Dal government of converting the Western Orissa Development Council ( WODC) to a rehabilitation centre for its failed leaders demanded immediate reorganisation of the body by taking dynamic people with expertise on development.
Raising the issue in the Zero Hour, Congress MLA from Kantabanjhi, Santosh Singh Saluja on Tuesday said in the House tht the Naveen Patnaik government had been imposing BJD leaders who lost in both Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the WODC.
“All those, who were defeated in the last elections, have been rehabilitated as expert members. These members are trying to project them as more powerful persons than the elected Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and Member of Parliaments (MPs) and behaving in authoritarian manner,” Mr Saluja lamented.
Criticizing the state government’s negligence in ensuring complete autonomy and delay in setting up of WODC headquarters, Congress legislator Naba Kishore Das said that the government’s stand on this sensitive issue was very “shocking” and “shameful.”
“WODC was formed with an objective to address the regional imbalances and bring socio-economic development to the people living in western Orissa districts. It seems that the objective has been defeated by one other the ruling BJD which always tried to make it a subservient body and a centre of rehabilitation of its rejected leaders,” Mr Das observed.
Another Congress legislator Nihar Ranjan Mohananda said the WODC which was formed to carry out smooth and sustainable development of local people by formulating and executing its own development policies and programmes, was in moribund state due to the lackadaisical approach of the state government.
The Congress members urged Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat to direct the government to immediately remove the political members from the WODC appointed as ‘so-called’ expert members and accept the recommendations of the local MLAs and MPs for execution of various development projects.
They also demanded to fill up the post of WODC chairman which is lying vacant since August 1 and shift the headquarters of the organization from Bhubaneswar to a unanimously agreed place in western Orissa.
Raising the issue in the Zero Hour, Congress MLA from Kantabanjhi, Santosh Singh Saluja on Tuesday said in the House tht the Naveen Patnaik government had been imposing BJD leaders who lost in both Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the WODC.
“All those, who were defeated in the last elections, have been rehabilitated as expert members. These members are trying to project them as more powerful persons than the elected Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and Member of Parliaments (MPs) and behaving in authoritarian manner,” Mr Saluja lamented.
Criticizing the state government’s negligence in ensuring complete autonomy and delay in setting up of WODC headquarters, Congress legislator Naba Kishore Das said that the government’s stand on this sensitive issue was very “shocking” and “shameful.”
“WODC was formed with an objective to address the regional imbalances and bring socio-economic development to the people living in western Orissa districts. It seems that the objective has been defeated by one other the ruling BJD which always tried to make it a subservient body and a centre of rehabilitation of its rejected leaders,” Mr Das observed.
Another Congress legislator Nihar Ranjan Mohananda said the WODC which was formed to carry out smooth and sustainable development of local people by formulating and executing its own development policies and programmes, was in moribund state due to the lackadaisical approach of the state government.
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The Congress members urged Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat to direct the government to immediately remove the political members from the WODC appointed as ‘so-called’ expert members and accept the recommendations of the local MLAs and MPs for execution of various development projects.
They also demanded to fill up the post of WODC chairman which is lying vacant since August 1 and shift the headquarters of the organization from Bhubaneswar to a unanimously agreed place in western Orissa.
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