Jayant accuses Odisha government of stalling development projects worth Rs 1.36 lakh crore

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Sunday accused Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik led BJD government of stalling development projects worth Rs 1.36 lakh crore in the state.

"The BJD government is not following cooperative federalism because they do not believe in it but we believe and the GST is the biggest example of cooperative federalism. Development projects worth of Rs 1.36 lakh crore have been affected due to lack of support from the state government," said Sinha here at an event.

The Union Minister said the BJP should be voted to power at the Centre and in Odisha as "double engines" speed up development in the state.

"That is why Odisha need BJP's 'double engine' government at the Center as well as in the State for the development. There are many development projects, which were initiated by the Central government, are on hold because of unavailability of land and environmental clearances," he said.

"The Central government is trying its best for the development of Odisha but without the state government's support, it cannot be possible. Odisha needs double-engine government because if there will be double-engine government, then we can do it in a better way and with a higher pace," he said.

Talking at length about the development projects in Odisha, Sinha said the NDA-led BJP government at the Centre wants to strengthen the aviation sector in Odisha.

"Our government wants to strengthen Odisha's aviation sector. Recently, we have inaugurated airport in Jharsuguda and we started services from there. We want to extend Bhubaneswar airport and we have started the process for this," he said.

"We are also going to construct a new terminal with the cost of Rs 935 crore. It will strengthen the passenger handling capacity around 90 lakh from 30 lakh," he said.

The new airports will be connected through UDAN scheme for which an amount of Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for Odisha.

"Under the UDAN, the Central government is giving Rs 100 crore for Odisha. Apart from Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda, we are also developing some other airports in the state like Rourkela and Jeypore. We are also looking for the possibilities for an airport in Paradeep," he said.

The Union Minister further said: "The Central government has initiated many development projects in Odisha but when we will not get land, environmental clearances and another kind of support from the State government, then the implementation of the projects is not possible.