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Leader of Opposition in state assembly and senior Congress leader, Narasingh Mishra today alleged that the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the state and BJP government at the Centre have entered into a tacit deal for mutual political benefits.
Questioning the mysterious silence of BJD over delinking of eight vital centrally sponsored schemes and change in sharing pattern of 33 central schemes, Mishra said, "Obviously, there is a deal between the two. Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik had a secret meeting with the Prime minister for this purpose when he visited New Delhi during the last assembly session," Mishra said.
"In lieu of state's soft stance against the Centre, the latter has agreed to provide protection to the state government and the Chief Minister in investigations into various scams related to coal block allocation, chit fund and illegal mining operation by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)," the Opposition leader alleged.
The frequency of Naveen Patnaik's visit to Delhi has increased due to the pressure from the local unit of BJP that CBI should probe further into involvement of the Chief Minister in the scams, he reasoned. Interestingly, Patnaik is now on a seven day visit to New Delhi. The same BJD government was making allegations of negligence against the Central government during the UPA regime, but it is keeping mum despite the reduction in the central assistance now, he said. Stating that due to delinking of central assistance in respect of eight schemes socio-economic sectors of the state would be seriously affected, the senior Congress leader said, it would also put heavy financial burden on the state exchequer to execute these schemes out of its own fund.
Taking a dig at the Centre's claim that the state government will get central assistance to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore in the current fiscal against Rs 18000 crore received last year, Mishra said, it is not sure whether the state government will get Rs 7000 crore more, but there is already Rs 3,000 crore less receipt of central assistance. It seems that the state government will be deprived of Rs 8,000 crore due to the reduction in central sponsored schemes, he estimated. He rubbished the claim that the state would be getting additional amount as per the recommendations of 14th finance commission which would compensate the loss to the state arising out of delinking of schemes.
