PM to unveil KBK region package during Orissa tour

NEW DELHI: Even as a controversy rages in Orissa over developmental programmes for the backward Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is set to embark on a two-day visit to the state on Monday.

Mr Singh, who is slated to visit both Koraput and Bloangir on Tuesday, could announce some relief measures for the backward, starvation-hit region.

The prime minister’s visit to the state and his expected intervention on the KBK scheme issue come in the wake of the ruling-BJD’s scathing attack on the Centre for having ‘discontinued’ the revised long-term action plan (RLTAP) for the region. Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik has even announced his government’s decision to launch a “Biju KBK plan” in the eight districts.

Mr Patnaik, who has pledged Rs 600 crore for his KBK plan, is maintaining that the Centre’s decision to “discontinue” the earlier scheme and route assistance for the region via the backward region grants funds will put an end to the “uniqueness” of the RLTAP.

He has said it would hamper its operational flexibility as well reduce the funds for the scheme. The announcement of the “Biju KBK plan” has drawn sharp reactions from the Congress, which charged the chief minister with gimmicks by renaming the centrally-funded KBK plan.

The PM’s visit, then, comes at a crucial time when hopes are high in the state Congress unit that Mr Singh’s announcements in the KBK region would take the wind out of Mr Patnaik’s campaign. The KBK issue was also raised by BJD members in the recently concluded monsoon session of Parliament. In response, the prime minister promised full assistance for the development of the KBK region in the Rajya Sabha.

Other than taking on the BJD government on the KBK issue, the prime minister will dedicate NTPC’s Talcher Super Thermal Power Station — the country’s biggest power plant with a capacity of 3,000 MW — to the nation on Monday. He is also expected to lay the foundation stone for the National Institute of Science (NIS) in Bhubaneshwar.

Sources said that the PM will also undertake an aerial survey of the flood-hit regions of the state. He would then fly to Bolangir to visit a panchayat to check on the workings of the National Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) and then proceed to Koraput. Security has been tightened in the state ahead of the prime minister’s visit.