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Journalism of Courage
With the Centre said to be in favour of granting Nitish Kumars demand for special category status to Bihar,Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday asked whether the UPA governments intention to change the criteria was a political bargaining.
An impression has been created that the Centre is considering modification of criteria for according special status to certain states in almost all sectors. If so,why is it not doing so immediately? What is the necessity of making a budget statement one day and then following up with announcement about one state on one day and another state after a week? Is it not sheer political bargaining, he said while moving a motion for passage of a resolution in the assembly to declare Orissa a special category state.
Naveen said Orissa satisfied most criteria for special status. Orissa has a very high concentration of ST and SC population and is one of the poorest among major states. It has very adverse socio-economic and human development indicators and its per-capita income is still quite low compared to the national average despite best development efforts, he said.
Though Congress supported the motion,its chief whip Prasad Harichandan said the BJD government raised this issue only when it faced elections.
