Kosal Discussion and Development Forum

Favoritism towards the Ganjam district by the Orissa state government

March 28, 2011 at 5:52 pm sanjibkarmee 11 comments

Following write-up is taken from http://kalahandia.blogspot.com:

Historical favoritism towards Ganjam by Orissa government

• Number of proejcts being inagurated in Ganjam district in past 10 years by the Chief Minister is one of the highest in Orissa
• IIIT (central Govt funded information technology institute) in Orissa was proposed in Berhampur by the state Govt.
• CM and Higher Education minister had announced that Khallikote College will be a University soon even without announching much needed state University in South Western part of the state (KBK).
• Confidentially one University personal infomed a senior NRO that the state Govt. provided 40 cores of AID to Berhampur University and merely 10 crore to Sambalpur University in the name of SU-IIIT.
• State Governemnt has recommended for a High Court Bench in Berhampur for South Orissa when the location is less convinient to the people in KBK.
• Proposed railway Wagon Factory in the budget 2010-11 was shifted from Bhubaneswar/Kalahandi to Berhampur (Ganjam), home dist of CM.
• Berhampur has one of the highest numbers of soley state Government funded higher/technical education instutions in Orissa after the state capital compared to any other district or city in Orissa.
• Khordha and Ganjam are neighbouring districts but every thing (administrative offices) are established in Ganjam in the name South Orissa and not in far off place from state capital. It is much convinient for the peopple of Ganjam to reach Bhubaneswar than people in KBK to reach Ganjam, what sort of logic is operational except to exploit marginalized people in the state? If it was the case why not administrartive office in Rourkela?
• Despite without having any iron ore, coal, chromium, Biju Patnaik had politically convienced TATA to establish second steel plant in Gopalpur in Ganjam, fortunately political favorotim did not suit the company later on and TATA moved to Kalinga Nagar (though there is serious problem in Kalinga Nagar TATA group still prefers Kalinga Nagar over Gopalpur for steel plant which expose the political favoritim towards Ganjam by Biju Patnaik)
• Among the district Ganjam has highest population but its size (5th in Orissa) is comparable to Kalahandi and less than Mayurbhanj, Sundergarh, Keonjhar and Koraput. It has the maximum number of SH plus NH per 1000 sqkm of area, one of the highest in Orissa. Road should be constructed based on area rather than population. For example UP is 1.55 times larger by area than Orissa and 5.3 times larger by population than Orissa, but the NH in UP is 1.8 times than that of Orissa. Is Orissa following a similar guide line among its districts? Are the SH and NH in Kalahandi and Ganjam comparable? Last year state Govt spent 180 cores for highways in Ganjam compared to 18-30 crore in Kalahandi. Similarly, should Sundergarh, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Koraput not have more SH and NH compared to Ganjam?
• Railway is a concern for Ganajm, but its not by state Govt rather by the central Govt for which state Govt is not able to favor its favorite district. However, there are districts in Orissa without having any rail network like Nabarangpur, Kandhamal whose size would be more than the half of size of Ganjam.
• For conservation of ecologically sensitive stone mountains (LANDA PAHADA), Orissa Govt last year spent 100% of the budget in Ganjam, when Ganjam has ~ 30%, Balangir has ~ 20%, Kalahandi has ~ 20%, Koraput has another substantial percentage of LANDA PAHAD in the state, why the budget was not distributed based on percentage? There is serious speculation that if there could have a substantial share in any of the other coastal district budget distribution would have been different. If its in KBK or Western Orissa policy is different.
• If one village has population 250 and another having 2000, than both the villages may need one school, but one having 2000 population may need more class rooms, teachers, books, blackboard etc. In the mean time first one must have a school. Ganjam has two times population than that of Kalahandi but it has 3212 villages compared to 2236 villages in Kalahandi. Is there a fairness in alloting budget in health, education and infrastructure?
• Ganjam receives highest number of MGNREGA schemes, which is acceptable as per population but not the SH and NH.
• Similarly regional institutions should come based on convinience and geography. If neighbouring undivided Ganajm could be considered for regional offices based on population than why not other neighbouring undivided Cuttack district for the same, when each undivided Cuttack and undivided Puri districts (capital and central RDC) had more population than undivided Ganjam district?
• MLA, Sri Jayanarayan Mishra alleged in the assembly of Orissa in past years that 30 % of Chief Minister’s releif fund was spent only in Hinjilikatu contituency.
• Another one alleged that the money spent from state Govt. budget only in Hinjilikatu could be more than that of state Govt fund being spent in district like Malkangiri/Nuapada (exluding central Govt fund)

Entry filed under: Balangir, Education, Health Services, Infrastructure, Kalahandi, Kalahandi Balangir Koraput (KBK) region, Nuapada, Region watch, Sambalpur, State and Central govt. and KBK.