Oriya NRI charges Cong with negligence towards State

The Pioneer, June 1, 2009
PNS | Bhubaneswar

An Oriya NRI Professor has accused the Congress of negligence towards Orissa in an e-mail to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi summarising facts establishing the party’s ignorance about the State.

The Congress announced to shift the proposed National Institute of Sciences (NIS) in Bhubaneswar to Kolkata in 2004. When Orissa MPs discussed with the Prime Minister about Orissa’ development, he replied that money does not grow in trees. The HRD Minister of State had mentioned in a speech in Patna that there will be an IIT in Orissa, but subsequently Orissa was not in the list. Only after lot of protests and demonstrations in Orissa, the State was included as one of the locations for a new IIT, Assistant Professor in Chemistry, American University of Beirut, Digambara Patra, alleged. The Congress Government has completely ignored the railway need of the KBK region including a railway factory, he has further alleged.

Last but not the least, even though the Congress got six MPs from Orissa this time, the PM failed to give them proper representation in the Cabinet. In western Orissa, the Congress won five out of six Lok Sabha seats, but not a single MP was made a Minister.

Knowingly or unknowingly, Singh has been neglecting Orissa unlike any other Prime Minister, he concluded in his letter.