NRO bats for proposed rail wagon factory in K’handi

The Pioneer, May 6, 2010
PNS, Bhubaneswar

Leading non-resident Odia (NRO) Lebanon-based American University of Beirut’s Chemistry Department assistant professor Digambara Patra has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to speed up the process of setting up the proposed rail wagon factory in Kalahandi in coordination with the Railways ministry.

Petitioning the CM, Patra has drawn his attention to the Centre’s proposed five wagon factories through the PPP mode across India and has also lauded the incumbent Minister Mamata Banerjee for considering the incessant demand of the people of Kalahandi region over the decades.

Patra has cited that in the past, Central institutions like HAL in Sunabeda, Nalco in Damanjodi, Central University and recently proposed CSIR in Koraput, Ordinance factory in Balangir, Food and Craft Institute and recently proposed Ultra Mega Power Plant in the respective local levels have been established.

However, during the past 62 years nothing has been made for the establishment of any such Central Government establishments in Kalahandi region though Kalahandi was denied the Central University at the last moment, he has rued, adding the region has been continuously marginalised due to political negligence since independence following which door step opportunities coming to Kalahandi were being shifted to other locations due to various reasons leaving the region high and dry.

“This is when the social scientists have been consistently raising backwardness of Kalahandi at the national level and high rate of unemployment is being reported by the State media,” Patra has lamented, quipping industrial development, especially like the wagon factory, may bring enormous opportunities to Kalahandi.

Reiterating his demand, the NRO has drawn the CM’s notice to the recent Rail Budget speech of Mamata Banerjee having clearly mentioned that Kalahandi is one of the probable candidates for the Wagon Factory in Odisha, he has urged that the CM should initiate necessary steps in advance to establish the proposed factory in the region.

For overall development of the KBKK (Kalahandi, Balangir, Koraput and Kandhamal) region, Kalahandi is rightly located in the centre, NRO concludes.