By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 16, 2016 : Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday urged prime minister Narendra Modi to restore certain discontinued central schemes and share the proceeds from Clean Environment Cess with the state government.

Addressing the inter-state council meeting at New Delhi on Saturday, the chief minister said, “Discontinuance of Central assistance for key area development programmes like special plan for KBK, Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) and Integrated Action Plan (IAP) are severely impacting the most vulnerable population and the backward regions of Odisha. I urge upon the Prime Minister to restore Central assistance for these programmes”.

The CM also referred issue of the Clean Environment Cess collected from the state abundant in natural resources saying that it is not being disbursed to it affecting the development of the people affected due to coal mining.

“Despite being a mineral-rich state, it continues to suffer from negative externalities caused by coal mines, coal-based power plants and non-revision of royalty on coal even after more than four years adding that the ‘Clean Environment Cess’ of Rs.400 per tonne levied by the Union government, which is four times of the royalty earned by the state, is not being shared with the coal bearing states. People of coal bearing states who are affected by pollution, transport problems, human displacement and other problems related to coal mining should be benefited by the cess. I reiterate the request made on earlier occasions that the Union government should share at least 60 percent of the collected cess with the coal-bearing states,” Patnaik demanded.

The Chief Minister also took strong exception to the introduction of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for disbursal of pensions. Odisha has 44 lakh pensioners with many residing in the remotest parts of the state and state’s pension distribution system entailing a fixed day approach for disbursal at the Gram Panchayat headquarters has been appreciated widely as one of the finest disbursal systems in the country.

He added that the doorstep banking including the banking correspondent model or the post office have been tried out without much success and these bring in the same problems which the state is trying to eliminate, i.e. the rent-seeking behaviour and delays. He desired that the present social security scheme of Odisha which stresses on the role of Panchayats, therefore should be continued as such.

The CM also objected to the delinking of the scheme of model schools for educationally backward blocks by the Union government saying that it has further strained the state’s resources by putting an additional burden of over Rs.160 crore towards capital cost and urged upon the union government to continue with this initiative.

Further, highlighting that Odisha continues to suffer from historical neglect in both road and rail communication, the Chief Minister stated that the Railways should now expedite project implementation of long-pending projects as Odisha has proactively come forward to participate financially in these projects.

Chief Minister mentioned that Odisha as a federal unit stands committed to accelerate the pace of socio-economic inclusive development and contribute to Nation building and looks forward to the Union government to support the state’s endeavours.