Thursday, May 17, 2012

Odisha Lok Dal protests Centre’s apathy over mines royalty hike


BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Lok Dal (OLD), a political party in the State, staged a rally at the Lower PMG here on Thursday opposing the Centre’s step-motherly attitude towards Odisha. In the rally, members of the party criticised the Central Government for keeping mum in mineral royalty hike issue.

The party said that every year Odisha loses huge amount of royalty money due to the Centre’s faulty mining policy. On the other hand, the State Government loses crores of rupees due to unholy nexus between administrative officers and mines mafias in the mining areas. The Centre should revise royalty on mining in every three years, but that is not happening in time for which the State bears huge lose at a tune of Rs 1800 crore, they added.

“Odisha has the right to get 50 per cent royalty on mining, but the Centre is avoiding the demand made by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik which is not acceptable anyway. We will take the issue to the streets if the Centre does not fulfill our demand,” said OLD president Dipti Ranjan Mohanty.

   

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