BJD plans to intensify stir over 'special category tag'

Youth wing to create human chains from Tuesday across the state

The youth wing of ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) plans to intensify stir over special status for Odisha in a bid to pin down the opposition Congress in the run up to urban body elections in the state and also divert attention from the popular demand of people of western Odisha for establishment of a bench of the High Court in their region.

The continuing agitation by the lawyers of western Odisha over the permanent bench of High Court has caused some political damage to the ruling BJD as no nominations were filed for at least 20 urban bodies in western Odisha following a call by the protesters to boycott the poll.

Even the BJD MLAs from that region had joined their counterparts from other parties a couple of days back to stage a dharna in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the assembly issue causing embarrassment to the ruling party.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's bid to resolve the issue through a dialogue with the agitators yesterday ended inconclusively though Patnaik has assured to look into the matter after the municipality polls.

Meanwhile, the BJD youth wing proposes to intensify its stir over the demand for special category status for Odisha by creating human chains across the state from August 27 onwards.

The party cadres will demonstrate in front of all district headquarters between 10.30 am to 11.30 am from Tuesday onwards to showcase the Centre's apathy for granting the state special category tag, said Sanjay Dasburma, Yuva (youth) BJD president.

The special category issue has come to the rescue of the party following the statement of Union planning minister Rajiv Shukla in the Parliament that Centre's has no plan to consider the state's demand in this regard. After creating ruckus in the assembly by shouting anti-UPA slogan on Friday, some BJD legislators had gone to the Raj Bhavan and handed over a memorandum to the Governor S C Jamir, justifying the state's demand for the special category tag. The party is now trying to keep the issue alive for some time, at least till the municipal polls, which is scheduled to be held on September 19.

The polls for the posts of 1,569 councillors and 40 corporators for 91 urban local bodies will be held in 3,010 booths between 8 am to 5 pm on September 19 and counting of votes will be held the next day. Election for chairperson posts is slated for September 30. The poll process would be completed with election of vice-chairpersons on October 22. The five-year terms of 32 municipalities, 58 notified area councils (NACs) and Berhampur Municipal Corporation will end on September 30. The state election commission might announce separate dates for filing of nominations for the municipalities in western part of the state for which no nomination paper has been received by the due date.