Voters have not elected governments in a State and the Centre to fight with each other, said Union Minister for Civil Aviation P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju during the ‘Vikash Utsav’ intellectuals’ meet in Berhampur of Odisha on Tuesday.
It seemed in a tacit manner, Mr Raju had commented on the continuing allegation by the BJD government in Odisha that the Centre is neglecting the State. Mr Raju, along with Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, took part in this intellectuals’ meet to create awareness about achievements and developmental plans of the Narendra Modi government during the past two years.
Mr Raju said the NDA government was trying to make federal system of the country stronger.
According to him, due to new policies of the Centre, revenue benefits of States have increased from 30 to 40 per cent. The Centre has decided to provide five per cent of resources of the local bodies and these would enable development of people of all walks of life throughout the country, he said.
He as well as Mr Ahir said any project can be thought of only when both the State and Central government take joint interest and the State provides the land for the project.
Mr Ahir in his address said the defunct fertiliser plant at Talcher in Odisha would be revived by 2019 through a Rs.6,000 crore project. Earlier, this plant was being managed by the Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI). It would be revived through a joint venture of FCI, Coal India and GAIL.
He claimed that the suicide rate of farmers has come down during the NDA rule under Mr Modi.
He elaborated how auction of coal blocks has provided Rs.54,000 crore extra revenue to Odisha. “These were the blocks that had been handed out for almost free by the previous UPA government,” he said.
He elaborated various pro-people schemes taken up by the NDA government at the Centre and criticised the Odisha government for making propaganda that it was providing rice to the poor at Re.1 per kilo, while the reality is that for this rice the Centre provides subsidy of Rs.27 and the Odisha government is adding subsidy of only Rs.2.
He added that in next three years there would be no hike in urea prices and abundance of urea and other fertilisers would end its black marketing.
