Fight for rights of Odisha, says Naveen

Bhubaneswar: The BJD president, Naveen Patnaik, on Tuesday asked his party MPs to become the voice of Odisha in Parliament and fight for the rights of 4.5 crore people of the State. The former Odisha chief minister, who is also the chairman of the parliamentary party, said this while presiding over a meeting of BJD MPs ahead of the budget session of Parliament. In the meeting, Patnaik said each MP should fight for the rights and dignity of the 4.5 crore people of Odisha.

He also asked them to take up the issue of special category status for Odisha as the most important issue, it said. This apart, Patnaik told the MPs to raise issues like price rise, high unemployment and rising joblessness, farmers and farm distress, Polavaram project and Mahanadi water dispute, coal royalty, green tax on coal, national highway, coastal highway, health, tribal development, GST on kendu leaves and connectivity in both rail and telecom, the statement said.

The BJD MPs extended their gratitude and appreciation to Naveen Patnaik for his efforts that led to Odisha emerging as the number one State in fiscal management in India for the period 2022-23, according to Niti Aayog report. The regional party has seven members in the Rajya Sabha, while it lost power in the last Lok Sabha elections.