LWE biggest threat to Odisha's internal security: Patnaik

Stating that Left Wing Extremism poses the biggest threat to the internal security of Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said the state government conducts regular anti-Naxal operations in the inter-state border areas to contain the menace.
Participating in the 11th meeting of the Inter-State Council here, Patnaik lamented the meet was convened after a gap of 10 years and advocated for meeting at shorter intervals to deliberate on issues concerning Centre-state relations.
Patnaik expressed his reservations on the introduction of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for disbursal of pensions.
He said Odisha has 44 lakh pensioners and many of them reside in the remote parts of the state.

The state's pension distribution system entailing a fixed-day approach for disbursal at the Gram Panchayat headquarters has been appreciated widely, he said.
Patnaik urged the Union government to ensure balanced and equitable deployment of Central forces among the states in order to prevent cross-border spillage of Maoists.

He also impressed upon the Union government to restore the earlier funding pattern under modernisation of police force.
The Chief Minister stated the recommendations of Punchhi Commission on Centre-state relations have been duly considered by Odisha and its views were furnished to the Central government last year in April.
He added Odisha has accepted majority of the recommendations barring a few which "impinge" upon state's autonomy.

He mentioned Odisha has decided to use Aadhaar as an identifier for providing subsidies, benefits and public services and has already set up a State Resident Data Hub for storing Aadhaar information of residents of Odisha.
The Chief Minister reiterated his concern at the Union government declaring Polavaram project as a national project despite its serious consequences on the livelihood of a large number of tribal families in Odisha and repeated requests of the state to the contrary.
He claimed this is a clear case of conflict of interest and against the principles of fair play and desired the Council should take note of such critical issues having inter-state ramifications and evolve an institutional mechanism to settle such disputes in a time bound and effective manner.