Relocating RDC of South Orissa in more appropriate location

To
Chief Minister of Orissa, Mr Patnaik

CC
MPs from Orissa
Media

Dear Honourable Chief Minister Mr Patnaik,
I learnt that you had written a letter on November 8, 2007 to then High Court Chief Justice suggesting that circuit or permanent benches were required in Sambalpur and Berhampur for Western and South Orissa respectively.

I am surprised that Berhampur was picked up as the location in South Orissa which is totally illogical.

Based on Revenue Division (or RDC), classification of South Orissa (SO) consists of 10 districts including Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Boudh, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Nuapada.

For South Orissa (attached is the map):
From Bouda in North to Motu in South, central place for SO could be Thuamul Rampur

From Khallikote in East to Kundai (Nabarangpur) in West, central place for SO could be Lanjigarh/Muniguda

From Parlikhemunid in South East to Beltikri (Nuapada) in North West, central place for SO could be Lanjigarh

Major town close to these central locations will be Bhawanipatna.

When Ganjam was made out of South Orissa, Bhawanipatna may also have an edge over Rayagada. On the other hand, if Kalahandi, Boudh and Nuapada are counted as part of Western Orissa based on University and WODC classification and not by administration (RDC) and Ganjam counted as South Orissa then Rayagada will be suitable location in rest of South Orissa.

Even if one thinks for a branch or regional station in Rayagda, Bhawanipatna or Koraput for South Orissa, I think Ganjam district is still very well connected to Bhubaneswar or Cuttack in best possible way in the state by road (golden quadrangle NH) and railways (main line). Most of the locations in Ganajm are closer to Bhubaneswar or Cuttack and could be reached faster than let’s say to Rayagada/Bhawanipat na, of course Koraput is very far from Ganjam.

When such thing occurs, perhaps people in Malkangir, Nuapada, Boudh or Nabarangpur may suffer more while visiting Rayagada or Bhawanipatna than those people from Ganajm while visiting Cuttack. Place like Khallikote, Bhanjanagar etc in Ganjam are even much closer to Cuttack. It does not justify cause of separate HC branch in Ganjam like the case of Keonjhar, Angul etc. Otherwise in every 170 – 200 km Orissa will need to have a HC branch and regional station. On the other side Kalahandi, Rayagada, Koraput, Nuapada, Nabarangpur etc are not closer to either Cuttack or Bhubaneswar. Even Sambalpur is far away from these locations compared to the distance between Bhubaneswar/Cuttack and Berhampur.

Ganjam resemblances very close to rest of costal district in the state with a tribal population 3%, whereas rest of South Orissa districts (including Gajapati) has 30 to 50% tribal except Boudh has 13%. Literacy rate of Ganajm is much higher than rest of South Orissa districts and close to Balasore. Other districts in South Orisse are more prone to Maoists than Ganjam. Having a large border with Bay of Bengal and based on its geographical location, Gajam can be very well be classified as coastal Orissa (or Eastern Orissa) along with other districts like Balasore to Puri, instead of Ganjam being part of South Orissa.

Earlier Ganjam was classified as South Orissa due to strong political influence and innocence of rest of South Orissa was taken granted. Parala Maharaj, Biju babu and Naveen babu came/come from the region and have contineoulsy favored Berhampur time to time over other backward districts in South Orissa.

In my opinion, South Orissa will be more appropriate for Gajapati, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangir, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada and Boudh, all of them are socially backward compared to Ganjam.

I do not have complain if in the line of Rourkela being a city Berhampur should have certain things and need development, but not in the name of South Orissa or as a regional station for whole South Orissa.

In the name of South Orissa, politically Behrampur has enjoyed lots of Governmental attention such as RDC, educational institutions (it is the most favored destination in the state after capital region in terms of state Government institutions) etc while others are continuing to suffer. Now this exploitation must stop somewhere.

RDC for North in Orissa is located in Sambalpur for the districts of Bargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Balangir, Sonepur, Deogarh, Sundergarh, Keonjhar, Angul and Dhenkanal, the central location for all these districts more or less comes in the Sambalpur district.

Similarly RDC for Central (Eastern or Coastal) in Orissa is located in Bhubaneswar for the districts of Mayubhanj, Balesore, Bhadrak, Jagatisingpur, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Cuttack, Puri, Khordha and Nyaagarh, the central location for all these districts could be Jajpur (part of undivided Cuttack), but if Ganjam becomes part of it, central place will be Bhubaneswar/ Cuttack and in that case area wise three revenue divisions will be similar.

The political depravity and favouritism should be stopped by Orissa. The RDC located in Berhampur is unable to monitor work in Kalahandi, Nuapada, Boudh, Nabarangpur etc and lots of central Govt grants are returning back. Kalahandi failed to spend MGNREGY money last year. The progress is much slower than expected.

The RDC for South Orissa should rather be relocated in central location of South Orissa and so should the probable location of High Court branch in South Orissa be evaluated.

Thanking you

With best regards

Digambara Patra