BHUBANESWAR, OCT 18: That chairman of the Biju Janata Dal's (BJD) PAC Bijay Mahapatra doesn't see eye to eye with party leader Naveen Patnaik is not new. And today their differences over the Long Term Action Plan (LTAP) for Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK) came to the fore once again when Mahapatra accused the Centre of ignoring the plan, despite the Union Minister's assurance that the Centre will double the funds for poverty alleviation schemes in the KBK area.Addressing a news conference here, Mahapatra said he disagreed with the view that the Centre is committed to providing adequate funds for implementing the LTAP. Referring to Patnaik's statement made two days ago, Mahapatra said doubling of funds under the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) is nothing new. The Centre has done so in the case of Gujarat and Maharashtra earlier, he added. He demanded the formation of a Cabinet committee to review the rules of the project's funding. He alleged the people of the area will not benefit if the LTAP ismired in bureaucratic wrangling.Alleging that the Centre is backtracking on its commitment to provide additional funds for implementing the LTAP, Mahapatra said that 50 per cent of the funds will be sanctioned as loan and the rest will have to be provided by the State Government as matching grant. With the loan burden of the state touching Rs 11000 crore, this arrangement will not be feasible, he said.Mahapatra demanded that the LTAP be made a centrally sponsored scheme as per recommendations of the Rajya Sabha committee on petitions and the standing committee on agriculture. He alleged that by not providing full funds for the LTAP, the Centre has done injustice to 60 lakh people living in the KBK area.Mahapatra alleged that the Union Water Resources Ministry recently rejected a Planning Commission proposal to relax norms of funding for implementing irrigation projects in the KBK area.
