Patnaik meets PM Modi, asks for special status for Odisha

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded special category status for his state as well as other assistance from the Centre but remained evasive on allying with National Democratic Alliance.

Patnaik led a delegation of his party members of Parliament to Modi and discussed issues related to his state and the requirement of central assistance, including in the field of railways.

After the 30-minute meeting, he said Modi was “quite positive” to the demands and hoped that the NDA government would treat Odisha better than the previous United Progressive Alliance regime.

During his first meeting with the PM, Patnaik raised the issue of granting special category status to Odisha and scrapping of the controversial Polavaram project situated on the border between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Odisha fears the project would submerge 130-odd villages in the Malkangiri district and lakhs of hectors of land. The Chief Minister urged Modi to ‘recognise the genuine concern of Odisha on submergence and flooding of Malkangiri and to halt the Polavaram project’. Patnaik said the state government has already taken the matter to the Supreme Court.

After the meeting, he said he hoped he would get a positive response from the PM to the demands. “I certainly hope. The PM was quite positive to our demands,” he said when asked if Odisha will get a better treatment from the Modi government in comparison to the previous UPA government.

Asked whether his party Biju Janata Dal would ally with NDA, Patnaik was evasive, saying he has not given a thought to it. He added that the issue did not come up during his meeting with Modi.

Image: Odisha CM meets PM Narendra Modi in the Capital. Photograph: PIB