Naveen Urges Centre to Make Odisha a ‘Special Focus State’ at NITI Aayog Meet

New Delhi: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today urged the Central Government to make Odisha a ‘Special Focus State’ and allocate funds for disaster proofing.

Speaking at the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting, Naveen said, “As we all know Odisha is impacted almost every year by natural disasters. It’s important to have disaster resilient infrastructure to protect the state and its people from the vagaries of nature. I would sincerely request the central government to make Odisha a special focus state and allocate funds for disaster proofing”.

The Chief Minister also urged the Centre to give special focus for Odisha in the crucial infrastructures, such as telecom, railways and banking.

He said that Odisha has been historically neglected in the subjects in the central list viz telecom, railways and banking.
“We have the lowest density in all these crucial infrastructures and I would urge the central Government to give special focus for Odisha”, the CM said.

The Odisha Chief Minister also asked the Centre to resolve the issues pertaining to the allocation of houses to the tribals under PMAY.

“As regards the rural housing scheme PMAY, most of our tribal and KBK districts have been bypassed from new allocation. I would request the Central Government to immediately resolve this issue and allocate houses. The State government has complied to all the queries raised in this regard”, he said.
The Chief Minister also raised the issue of conservation and preservation of heritage sites at the NITI Aayog meeting.
He said that conservation and preservation systems has gone huge changes globally.

“Both in terms of technology and legal framework. I would suggest that ASI should be transformed and AMSAR act amended to make our systems on par with global benchmarks. This will greatly help in protecting heritage sites including our own Konark”, the CM stated.