Ramesh refutes Central negligence to Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Jun 20 (UNI) The Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh today dubbed Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's allegation of Central negligence as 'irresponsible and absurd'.

Mr Ramesh told UNI that Orissa had received the maximum benefit under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in which 24 out of 30 districts of the state had been covered while the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) was being implemented in the rest of six districts.

On Chief Minister Mr Patnaik's statement that the Centre had neglected Orissa in not considering the demand for establishment of IIT in the state, the Union Minister quipped, ''Why the Chief Minister failed to get the IIT during the six years tenure of NDA government of which the ruling BJD was a partner.'' Being a partner of NDA, it would have been much easy for the Chief Minister to apprise the then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to sanction IIT for the state but he (Mr Naveen Patnaik) failed to do so, the Minister remarked.

To a question, he alleged that Orissa like Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhatisgarh, had been neglecting agriculture due to 'misplace priority' on mineral-based industries.

Mineral wealth is a great disadvantage for Orissa, he said adding that it is a curse for the state.

Mr Ramesh said, the government must come out from the obsession of the mineral-based industries and accord more focus on agriculture and horticulture, which were more employment generated sectors and could bring the real development.

The Union Minister said there had been a substantial upward revision of export from Orissa with the figure touching Rs 10,400 crore during 2005-2006 but a majority of this accounted for mineral sector while the non-traditional export had a negligible three per cent share.

Mr Ramesh said, during his discussion with the Chief Minister, he made it clear that he had not come to Orissa to discuss the 97 per cent segment of export but to focus on the three per cent export on non-traditional products, which could create mass employment.

He said, for the first time in the country an Organic export zone on turmeric and ginger would be set up in Kandhmal district for which the state government had already identified the land.

The Union Minister said he was also keen to encourage organic coffee in Koraput and see that the Poderu model be adopted in the district for cultivation of organic coffee, which has a high demand in the international market.

Poderu in Andhra Pradesh had brought a revolution in organic coffee plantation, involving 60,000 tribal families which in all would likely be further expanded to 1.30 lakh tribal families Mr Ramesh said during his discussion with the Chief Minister, he had promised to send the Coffee Board Chairman to Koraput to ensure that more and more tribals were benefited out of organic coffee cultivation as the district has the potential for organic coffee plantation over 25,000 hectares of land.

The Union Minister said Mayurbhanj in Orissa had figured as one of the four districts adopted by his ministry for development and export of Shellac with the active participation of the women self-help group.

UNI