We have got more investment in the last five years than the state has managed in previous 55 years. Baijayant ?Jay? Panda is the face of Biju Janta Dal (BJD) in Parliament. He has been recently elected to the PSU committee in Lok Sabha. While speaking to the?Sandip Das and Soma Das of Fe he asserts why the party has been demanding a ?special category status? for Orissa. Panda also speaks his mind on a range of other?issues….
BJD has got a third successive mandate in Orissa, a thumping majority and an unusual feat in the political history of this country. Have you figured out what went right for you?
In last four years, for the first time in 500 years of its history, Orissa has witnessed a growth rate higher than the national average. This is corroborated not only by the state government statistics but also by a World Bank report published last year, supported by Planning Commission statistics.
Orissa has been at the bottom of the table in the historical records of the last half millennium.?Even under the Mughal era and?British Raj it was way behind any other parts of the country, which indicate that it was poor state and certainly in the post independence India, Orissa has been at the bottom of the pack. ?
Have you been able to do justice in attracting investments to Orissa?
Orissa has signed MoUs worth Rs 4,50, 000 crore. ?Forget about the paper work, what has actually happened on the ground is about Rs 85,000 crore.
We have got more investment in last five years than the state has managed in previous 55 years. And the result of that is beginning to show. Some10 years ago, the state government used to be broke like most other state governments. It was not able to pay salaries on time. It was overdraft with RBI in case of 95% of the time. That has changed. But the important thing is that we are trying to use the increased revenues in a better fashion. ?
But people have raised questions on the credibility of the MoUs being signed.?
For decades, we got no investors. Some seven years back, we made a fundamental change in policy. Naveen babu (Naveen Patnaik) introduced called it policy of value addition.
Posco is not a fly by night operators. Jindals are a national name. We have also got small and medium size proposals from the new business houses.
We were not in a position to be very choosy a decade ago. However, now, we have a strict quarterly monitoring system. MoUs have been cancelled, when there was no progress in the projects. Out of the original 42 MoUs signed for steel, atleast six were cancelled on this account. By and large vast majority of investors were very credible.?
Has Orissa been able to grapple with chronic hunger through its Rs 2 per kg rice programme?
We know that we have a huge level of poverty. It is still at the level of 45% in Orissa and the food security is an essential part of that .The food security programme came about with state government funding. We took the rice procured by the Centre for the scheme.
The state government spent Rs 850 crore per year to make it happen. There was no leakage and?mismanagement in the implementation. In fact the chief minister personally monitors this as it is his pet project.?
How long do you think it would take the Orissa story to turnaround?
More than 500 years of falling behind cannot be overturned in 5 to 10 years. Traditionally it would take 20 to 25 years to turn the state around.
Even in the social indices, Orissa has started gradually climbing up the ranks. Today in the most of the indicators it is number 4 or 5 from the bottom. For example, in the last decade the fastest improvement in terms of improvement in malnourishment has been in Orissa. Orissa had reduced malnourishment in children and adolescent by 10%. Other states have the improvement of about 6%. In the areas of primary education, infant mortality rate Orissa is starting to inch upwards. It can not be turned overnight but there is a trend. We have to sustain it till the next two decades.?? ?
You have been demanding for a ?special category status? for the state.
Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) used to get special funding from the central government. Once the UPA government came to power, BRGF (Backward Region Grant Fund) was launched and KBK was lumped into that. As a result KBK got equated with districts of Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka.
Even the most backward districts in Haryana, Punjab and Haryana are far ahead of KBK. This is unfair and special status given to KBK should not have been taken away.
Special?category status has also been granted?to North Eastern states then why not Orissa. Orissa also fulfills most of the criteria required for the special category status
