Naveen follows own routine, seeks more funds

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Nov 27: Continuing with his old habit of writing letters to create a ground for raising the issue of Centre’s neglect to score political brownie points in future, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking allocation of more funds for Odisha in the railway budget 2015-16.Patnaik had written almost a similar letter to the Prime Minister in June this year seeking allocation of a sizeable part of the revenues generated from Odisha to rail projects within the State in the railway budget 2014-15.Although there was enough time for the Centre to prepare the railway budget proposals for the next fiscal, Patnaik raised the same old demands in his letter as he has been doing since long.“As highlighted in my earlier letters to you, the railway route length and rail density in Odisha is well below national average as also substantially lower than that in neighboring States.“In contrast, gross earnings from various stations in the state of Odisha is estimated to be in excess of Rs.14,000 crore during the year 2013- 2014.I would request you to kindly ensure allocation of a sizeable part of the revenues generated from Odisha within the State itself for strengthening and expanding rail infrastructure,” Patnaik said in his letter to Modi repeating the words that he had written in his earlier letters.Following his own routine of writing letters to the Prime Minister and other Central Ministers and reviewing the different schemes of his own government at frequent intervals, Patnaik also reviewed the implementation of the Mamata scheme at the Secretariat on Thursday.