BJD claim on central bias misleading: Cong

Barely a week after Biju Janata Dal (BJD) staged a rally in New Delhi voicing concern over the Centre's discrimination against Odisha in providing financial assistance, the state Congress today hit back saying that the ruling party was misleading the public by giving wrong information.

"The BJD chief Naveen Pattnaik staged a drama in Ramleela Maidan in Delhi by spending huge amounts of money and taking thousands of BJD workers in seven special trains and criticised the Centre's step motherly attitude towards Odisha. But as per authenticated statistics, out of 28 states in India, Odisha got the highest Central per capita aid," said Jayadev Jena, president, Pradesh Congress Committee.

Quoting figures released by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, a New Delhi-based think-tank, Jena said, the per capita Central aid to Odisha stood at Rs 1,688, followed by Andhra Pradesh (Rs 1,333) and Haryana (Rs 1,165).

He alleged that the Centre has never neglected when it came to assisting poor states financially, rather it was the state government which was unable to utilise the assistance for which money was returned. Between 2009 and 2012, the state government surrendered Central assistance to the tune of Rs 7,001 crore, Rs 6,423 crore and Rs 8,439.58 crore respectively, he said.

The state government must publish a white paper regarding total financial assistance provided by the Centre and expenses made by it, Jena demanded.

The BJD refused to accept the allegations leveled by the Congress, saying that per capita assistance do not reflect the larger picture.

"They (The Congress party) must release figures saying how much they paid to the Congress ruled states and how much to the non-Congress states. Regarding inability of spending the money, I can assure them that Odisha is not behind in implementing the Central sponsored schemes," said Kalpataru Das, state minister for Panchayati Raj.