Cong urges Prez for special State tag

BHUBANESWAR: A nine-member delegation led by PCC president Niranjan Patnaik here on Wednesday met President of India Pranab Mukherjee and handed over a memorandum for conferring Special Category Status on Odisha. Patnaik reiterated the Union Finance Minister’s budget speech where he had told to change the criteria for Special Category Status to the States.

Patnaik said in the memorandum that the State lags behind the national average on almost all development indicators and the gap between Odisha and the more prosperous States has been widening. The State is showing poor performance in the per capita income, poverty ratio, health indicators, employment generation, least developed in infrastructure facility, economic and human development. Per capita development expenditure in the State is far behind than other States, Patnaik said, adding, “Conferment of special State tag is fully justified considering our acute backwardness.”