Following are excerpts from an article in Telegraph.

Congress managers have launched an operation to manage the numbers in the Lok Sabha after the political flux caused by the women’s reservation bill.

The government is working on two tiers to build a cushion in case the BJP tries to push the UPA to the wall with the support of the Samajwadi Party, the BSP, the RJD and the Left. …

… The Congress is also in touch with the Biju Janata Dal for a “limited understanding” in parliamentary proceedings even as the two parties oppose each other in Orissa. There is a unity of purpose — fighting Maoists and clearing development projects — and Manmohan Singh has been generous to Patnaik’s demands of late.

As the current term of the government progresses the UPA will be needing BJD’s help. The Orissa CM and BJD MPs must be ready to forcefully ask the fulfillment of some of Odisha’s important or longstanding demands. But no demand for a "special category state" please.

Following are excerpts from a report in Business Standard.

The Orissa government has urged the Centre to develop Digha-Talsari tourism circuit to attract more tourists to these locations. It is proposed to be developed in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

Since the state government has already identified 700 acres of land for the project, the state has urged the Union ministry of tourism to initiate measure for the development of this circuit.

It figured in the discussion of the chief minister Naveen Patnaik with the visiting Union minister of state for tourism, Sultan Ahmad in the state secretariat today.

Ahmad is reported to have agreed to provide Central support for the international convention centre being planned in Bhubaneswar.

“The chief minister has proposed the setting up an international convention centre to attract tourists to Orissa. We will consider the proposal”, Ahmad told the media after meeting Patnaik.

… On the extension of the ‘Maharaja Express Classical India’ train to Bhubaneswar, the minister said, the ministry would consider and hold discussion on it after the state government sends its proposal.

…  Since the existing packaging of the train is for 12 days and 11 nights, it can come from Delhi via Bodhgaya-Kolkata to Bhubaneswar by extending the package to 12 days and 12 nights.

Similarly, the state government has sought the conversion of the status of Food Craft Institute at Bolangir into an Indian Institute of Health Hotel Management (IIHM). The state government would provide additional land for it. Besides, the government has also urged the Centre to set up a IIHM at Rourkela, Mishra added.

Following is an excerpt from an article in Bihar Times.

… fund flow from the center to states takes place in one of the following four ways:

1. Proportionate Tax Devolution as specified by Finance Commission
2. Grant in aid  again following the Finance Commission formula
3. Central Investments (at sole discretion of federal government)
4. Loans (at discretion of federal & state government)

It is obvious from the above mechanism that federal government enjoys absolute discretion only in the matter of central investments. Central benevolence towards specific states can be decided only on the basis of the investments it is making there.

For a judicious assessment of UPA led central government it would be pertinent to consider a period starting from 1st April 2004 till date. A cursory look at the figures for the period under consideration, as exhibited in the following chart, has an interesting story to tell. Four states, viz. Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, together make up for 50% of the central investments. In rupees terms, their share corresponds to one lac five thousand fifty five crores (INR 10,55,52,13,00,000) of the total central investments of two lac nine thousand and fifty crores (INR 20,90,47,34,00,000).  Further, a major chunk of this has been allocated to just two states that is Maharashtra at 16% and West Bengal at 15%. In contrast, Bihar got only 3.87% of the central investments. Madhya Pradesh (3%), Rajasthan (3%) and Orissa (2%) lagged further behind.

I am not sure how the above was calculated. But if the numbers are right then this should be brought to the notice of the Odisha government and leaders.  (Thanks to Kanhu Roul for the pointer.)

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59137.

The Ministry of Environment & Forests have identified 38 sites on a nation-wide basis as appropriate for planting of mangroves and their conservation and management. Of these, seven sites are in Orissa, They are Bhitarkanika, Mahanadi, Subernarekha, Devi-Kadua, Dhamra, Chilka and Mangrove Genetic Resources Centre (Kalibhanj-Dia). Proposals were received from State Forest Department, Govt. of Orissa for three sites viz. Bhitarkanika, Mahanadi and Devi-Kadua for which the Ministry sanctioned a sum of Rs. 123.29 lakhs.Rs. 83.406 lakhs has already been released during the current financial year.

The above headlines is partly an excerpt from a Telegraph report. Following are excerpts from an Economic Times report by Nageswar Patnaik.

Orissa is currently implementing project proposals worth of Rs.3,06,575 crore, about 32.6% of total investment proposals received by the state government, which is higher compared to other states, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Releasing a Paper titled ASSOCHAM Strategy : “Creating and Sustaining Growth Momentum in Orissa” here on Wednesday at a press conference here by Assocham President, Swati Piramal and Secretary General, D S Rawat, however, said at the end of September 2009, the state had 486 live investment projects worth Rs 9.4 lakh crore.

“This is 27% higher than the live investment reported as on September 2008”, Dr Piramal said adding that the respective shares of electricity, manufacturing, mining and services sector in total live investment are respectively 42.8%, 34.7, 56.6% and 6.3%.

… Explaining the reason for the state having more than 65% of investment proposals at announcement stages, the Paper clarifies that lower implementation rate of projects, of late, has become a phenomenon across states in India. “ …

According to the Paper, more than 10% of total investments

announced by both government and private sectors in India as on March 2009 have gone into Orissa. The state has attracted Rs 9,28,834 crore out of a total of Rs 88,71,867 crore announced in India. The state’s share was mere 0.87% in the total investment undertaken by different government sources. “In contrast, the share of Orissa was 13.29% in total investment made by the private sector in India. All most all of the investment that Orissa has seen has come from the private sector while government sources accounted for insignificant amount (Rs 500 crores out of Rs 9.28 lakh crores)”, it adds. .

The Assocham has emphasized on the need for infrastructure development in the state for faster pace of economic growth. “Good infrastructure facilities would not only reduce the transaction costs of the established economic agents but also make the State an attractive destination for new investments. The critical elements of infrastructure development in India are leveraging public resources to access a large pool of private resources and providing an environment that help take advantage of liberalized policies”, the Paper argues.

I have not been able to locate the report from the ASSOCHAM site. If anyone finds it please leave an URL in the comment. Besides the positive news in the above paragraphs, one issue to note is that Odisha is only getting 0.87% of the government investments. I wonder what the number would be if it is narrowed to central government investment. My guess is that the number would be similar. Odisha must make efforts to get its fair share with respect to central government investment, and not just in mining and metal sector. In that regard in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3298 we listed the central PSUs in Odisha and India.

Business Standard focuses on a different aspect in the ASSOCHAM report. Following is an excerpt from the Business standard report.

Citing lack of new age industries in Orissa, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) today called upon the Orissa government to focus on the development of IT, real estate and service sectors.

It also laid emphasis on the development of human resources to bridge the skill gap and improve the employability of manpower in the state.

it strongly pitched for the development of infrastructure, focus on sunrise industries like pharmaceuticals, small and medium industries, adequate importance on climate change and global warming, removal of regional inequalities particularly in KBK districts and connecting the ports with the industrial corridors. Similarly, promotion of employment through cluster development, setting up of ancillary industries, linking industries to supply chain and creation of opportunities for self-employment need to be given priority. …

ASSOCHAM has suggested that the land acquisition need to be left to the buyers and sellers of land and the role of the state should be that of a facilitator only. The project proponents have a role to rehabilitate all those families being uprooted for a project.

On Orissa specific initiative, Rawat said, an Orissa Desk has been set up in Delhi to focus on the human resources development and the development of food processing industries. Berhampur University has been roped in as the partner for the purpose.

The desk is working on the growth of agriculture and food processing industries in the state and drafting Orissa Vision-2020 to provide a road map for the development of the state. An investment seminar called “Orissa Calling Investment”, is proposed to be held in Delhi in October this year to promote investment in the state, he pointed out.

As per the recent PIB release there are 4 public sector companies in Odisha. Following is an excerpt from that PIB.

As per the registered offices, as on 31.3.2009, there were 4 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) functioning in the state of Orissa. The financial performance of theseCPSEs for the year 2008-09 is given below;

 (Rs. in crore)

SI. NO.                  Name of CPSEs                            Net Profit/(-)Loss

1.                           Mahanandi Coalfields Ltd.                     1718.03

2.                           National Aluminium Company Ltd.          1272.27

3.                           Orissa Drugs & Chemicals Ltd.              (-) 0.61

4.                           Utkal Ashok Hotel Corporation Ltd.        (-) 1.39

The Government has been taking steps, for the upgradation and modernization ofCPSEs on a case to case basis. The Government has constituted the Board for Reconstruction of Pubic Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) to advise the Government on the proposals submitted by the concerned administrative Ministries / Departments for strengthening, Modernization, revival and restructuring of CPSEs.

I am not sure why SAIL Rourkela, NTPC etc. are not the above list. My guess is perhaps because their head quarters are not in Odisha. It is important to have the HQs in Odisha as big decisions are often made in the HQs. It has helped with respect to MCL announcing to establish a medical college in Talcher. (I wonder how the progress is.) On the other hand it has not helped much with respect to NALCO. They only give peanuts to Odisha.

In any case we wondered how does Odisha compare to other states in terms of hosting public sector units. Upon investigation we came across the following list at http://goidirectory.nic.in/psucentral.htm. (A bigger list is at  http://www.amritt.com/India-Public-Sector-Companies.html.)

The following table (except the last three rows) is from an Odisha government source.  All the amounts are in crores of rupees.

The last three rows are filled by me. The rest is from an Odisha government document.

Following is from Dharitri.

The above article writes about the analysis of ex-MP Braja Tripathy. His main complaint is that Indian Railways makes 10% of its revenue (about 6000 crores) from Odisha but has spent only 2% of the budget in Odisha; 836 crores out of 41,426 crores. He also says that in 2008-09 the Rail budget had 948.34 crores for Odisha and since then while the revenue and planned expenses have increased 10-15%, Odisha’s rail budget has decreased by 115 crores. 

Mr. Tripathy has a very good point. We made similar points in our page http://kbkrail.orissalinks.com/ and in the article http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/1550.

However, I partly agree with the comment made by Mr. Prasanna Mishra; this year’s allotment of 120 crores for the Khurda-Balangir line is pretty good. The Odisha government must facilitate land acquisition so that the full 120 crores is spent this year. That way it can ask for more in the next budget and possibly get it. Otherwise next year Khurda-Balangir will get a smaller allocation and we will be back to square one.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.

The state-owned Industrial Infrastructrue Development Corporation (IDCO) chairman-cum-managing director, Priyabrata Patnaik, told reporters that the Union secretary urged the state government to provide land, water linkage and power supply besides other required infrastructrue for the project.

… The PCPIR project, which is going to spread over an area of 250 square kilometers at Paradip with the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) oil refinery as anchor tenant, is expected to attract investment to the tune of Rs 2,75,000 crore.

The major chunk of investment, about Rs 23,000 crore, will come in petroleum and petro-chemical sector.

The project will generate employment opportunity for more than 2 lakh people when it is fully commissioned.

Following are some pointers on PCPIRs.

• Slides on the scheme.

Following is obtained from the report http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowBussinessNews.asp?id=16794.

• National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme,
• National Rural Health Mission,
• Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission,
• Indira Awas Yojana,
• National Horticulture Mission,
• Indira Gandhi National Pension Yojana,
• Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana,
• Accelerated Irrigatiion Benefit Programme,
• Total Sanitation Campaign,
• Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana,
• Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana.

To get KBK out of backwardness governments at the center and states have had packages for KBK, but they have not helped that much. The following suggestion by Jibanendra Mohanty in Orissa Today is a very good suggestion. Our government should pursue it.

Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal  have made significant progress on Industrialization during the last few years, via the Special Industrial Package provided by the Government of India. Most of the Industries set up in recent times  are in  Manufacturing/Engineering/ Agro-products/ Drugs & Pharmaceuticals/ Computer Hardware, etc  not dependent upon mining operations.  The high lights of these Industries are  a) they need small land parcels i.e.  areas of 1 to 10 acres, b) they provide  employment ranging from 50 to 1000 persons/unit.  These Industries do not need mining operation, do not need  high  water consumption nor do they create  major problem for Ecology and Environment. These Industries have made significant impact on the  employment & economic front and on  all round development of the States.

 The existing  special  package is valid up to end of 2010 and the States have already started lobbying for extension of the said package up to 2020.

Now the Question is why such special Industrial package is not being provided  for the KBK region of Odisha??

The above is a very good idea. Some links on special industrial package for Himachal Pradesh is here. Links for special industrial package for Uttarakhand is here and here. 

The Orissa state government should pursue this. In Koraput and Kalahandi the focus can be on downstream industries and Balangir which is very well connected by Rail as well as by NH the focus could be on all kinds of industries.

Many of them raised various Railways related issue. MPs Bhakta Das and Sanjay Bhoi raised the issue about a medical college and a national university in Bhawanipatna. Following are news items from Dharitri and Samaja on this.

Following is an op-ed piece from Samaja on the Railways issue.

(Thanks to Future Berhampur blog for the pointer.)

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The Centre has approved the development of four different sectors in Orissa including granite through the cluster approach under the Lean Manufacturing Competitiveness Scheme (LMCS).

These clusters include the Ganjam Granite cluster at Berhampur, the handicrafts cluster of the Khurda-based Trishakti Self Help Group (SHG), Sponge Iron cluster at Bonai near Rourkela and plastic cluster at Balasore.

New Delhi-based National Productivity Council (NPC) has been chosen as the nodal agency for the implementation of these cluster units. The formation of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) is necessary for the formal declaration of these cluster units.

“We have already taken steps to form the SPV for the granite cluster at Berhampur”, said Santosh Kumar Bebarta, secretary, Ganjam Granite Cluster. Once all the formalities are completed, the granite cluster will be launched, said B B Dhal, general manager, District Industry Centre (DIC), Ganjam. The deadline for the functioning of the proposed granite cluster is December 31 this year. The SPV of the particular cluster could get a funding up to Rs 10 crore from the Centre for setting up of the Common Service Centre (CSC).

The web page for the Lean Manufacturing Competitiveness Scheme (LMCS) is http://www.dcmsme.gov.in/schemes/lean-manufact.htm. In the pilot phase 100 mini-clusters have been proposed.

I hope the above pointers will be useful for readers to approach people and officials in their local area to pursue mini-clusters under the above scheme.

Following is from Samaja.

The second article above says that the central government agreed to this terminal market due to Mr. Amarnath Pradhan’s proposal. I am not sure how true this is as the following call came out in 2008.

Following is from Samaja. Its unacceptable that Orissa only spent 650 crores out of the allocated 1100 crores for NREGS during 2008-2009. The unspent money could have built half of Khurda-Balangir line. The Orissa government needs to do a better job at spending this money.

Following is from PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55153.  Orissa should learn from this and pursue health insitutes for its rural areas.

Under National Rural Health Mission[NRHM] an amount of Rs. 108.53 crores was sanctioned for the RCH Centre for Excellence, Tamil Nadu with the following components : 

1. Institute of Obstetric and Gynecology, Egmore

2. Institute of Government Kasthurba Gandhi Hospital, Triplicane

3. Training Centre for Health & FW Institute, Egmore

4. Training for Multipurpose Health Supervisor[F] Training Institute, Triplicane

The services for patients include out patient services, special clinics, diagnostic service, in patient care along with comprehensive emergency Obstetric & Neonatal care services and training for medical staff with renewed infrastructure and facilities. 

This information was given by Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. 

DS/GK

Following is from PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=54712.

Minister of State (Independent Charge) Shri Jairam Ramesh received a large number of representations in regard to the project for bauxite mining by the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC). In a statement issued here today he said the projects are now being examined in the Ministry for approval or rejection so that there is no ambiguity and project proponents do not misuse the ‘in-principle’ approval. 

The following is the text of Shri Jairam Ramesh on the issue of bauxite mining in Orissa: 

“I have been receiving a large number of representations in regard to the project for bauxite mining by the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) through Vedanta, a private mining company in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts of Orissa. The total amount of forest land proposed to be diverted is 660.749 ha., of which around 353.14 ha is in the Niyamgiri reserved forest. Concerns have also been raised on the impact that this project will, interalia, have on livelihoods of tribal communities. 

The project application was received in the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoE&F) on February 26, 2005. The MoE&F gave ‘in-principle’ approval for this project on December 11,2008 under the Forest Conservation Act,1980. This ‘in-principle’ approval is to be converted to a final approval after the fulfillment of stipulations contained in the ‘in-principle’ approval. 

As the representations started coming in, on August 6, 2009 the MoE&F asked the Regional Chief Conservator of Forests, Bhubaneshwar to investigate complaints that project activities have started even without the final approval of the Central Government in violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The site was inspected and the site inspection report was submitted on August 16,2009. The site inspection report found that construction activity had begun in the non-forest revenue land. Technically this is not a violation of the law but it is a violation of the guidelines issued by the MoE&F which says that when a project involves non-forest and forest lands, construction in the non-forest land should not begin without clearance for activity in the forest land itself. A letter has been issued on November 25th,2009 to the Orissa Government asking for an explanation as to how the violation of this guideline has been permitted. 

On August 3, 2009, the MoE&F had issued a binding guideline to all State Governments that application for diversion under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 would be considered only after all due processes contained in the Scheduled Tribe and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006 have been fully and satisfactorily completed. A letter was subsequently issued by the MoE&F to the Orissa Government on November 3, 2009 directing the State to comply with the provisions of the Scheduled Tribe and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006 and provide evidence for the compliance before the Centre could examine conversion of the ‘in-principle’ approval to final approval. The reply of the state government is awaited. In addition, another site inspection team is being sent in the next one week to verify fresh allegations of violations of the terms of the ‘in-principle’ approval under Forest Conservation Act,1980. 

The new policy of the MoE&F does away with the concept of ‘in-principle’ approval. Projects are now being examined for approval or rejection so that there is no ambiguity and project proponents do not misuse the ‘in-principle’ approval.” 

KP/

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

the BJD has decided to bring four resolutions against the Centre. “We will move resolution against the Centre for neglecting the cause of Odisha in the field of railway, for not increasing mine royalty in a regular manner and not giving its due share to the State, Centre’s negligence in providing help to the State to face the Maoist menace and Government’s failure to provide flood assistance to the State,” Mohanty added.

I agree with the above.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

… IL&FS-IDC had earlier submitted its draft report to the state government in February this year. However, the project had to be reworked by IL&FS-IDC in the wake of the Centre’s proposal to develop an airport in the same area.

Sources close to the development said, the plan to develop the airport has been okayed by the state government and the proposed airport would be a part of the IT investment region.

The airport will come up on an area of about 2,300 acres close to the site of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Orissa which is being set up over 835 acres of land at Jatni, about 20 km from the city.

… The IT investment region (ITIR) in Orissa will occupy an area of 40 sq km (around 10,000 acres) between Bhubaneswar and Khurda.

This ITIR project is expected to be fully operational by 2020.In the final project report, IL&FS-IDC had included among other things an airport, a global IT training centre, a bio-tech park and a science city spread over 350 acres.

The Infocity-II project being set up by the state government on over 600 acres of land at Janla on the outskirts of the city would also be a part of the IT investment region.

The ITIR would be developed in two phases out of which 20 per cent of the investment is committed for the first phase while the balance 80 per cent of the investment will come in the second phase.

The entire cost of the project is yet to be ascertained. While the Centre will provide external infrastructure for the project in the form of roads, the onus is on the state government to acquire land for the project.

According to the project plan of IL&FS-IDC, 40 per cent of the area of the ITIR would be earmarked for the processing units of information technology (IT) and ITes sectors (IT enabled services) as well as electronics and hardware manufacturing units.

The remaining 60 per cent of the area would be devoted to the non-processing facilities like research and development centre, technological institutes of national and international repute.

This apart there would be a central business district, an integrated township comprising social infrastructure facilities like schools, hospitals and shopping malls and external infrastructure like roads.

Following is an excerpt from a report in expressbuzz.com.

Land has been identified near Amarda in Mayurbhanj district for establishment of the Army base in the State.

General-officer-commanding (GOC), central command, J.K. Mohanty met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here at the Secretariat today to discuss the issue.

Mohanty told mediapersons that it is now for the State Government to acquire the land and hand it over for establishment of the base.

The Centre recently informed the State Government that it had decided in principle to establish an Army base in the State and requested it to provide the required land. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had assured the Centre that it will extend all cooperation including provision of land for this purpose.

Amarda is close  to NH 60 on State highway 61. Its about 15 kms west of from Jaleswar. It is 10 km from Rasgobindpur airport and is about 50 kms from Baripada. There is an Amarda Road station between Basta and Rajghat stations.

The sequence of Railways stations around Amarda Rd are: Balasore, Rupsa Jn (18), Basta (28), Amarda Rd (34), Jaleswar (48).

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to inaugurate the second unit of state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) in Tiruchirapalli by the end of this month, a top company official said here today.

"The Rs 750 crore plant is ready and we are waiting for dates from the Prime Minister’s Office to confirm his visit to Tiruchirapalli to inaugurate the plant," BHEL Tiruchirapalli complex Executive Director V Ananthakrishnan told reporters here.     

"Already we are recruiting 1,000 candidates per year and this year too we will recruit another 1000," he said, adding they would continue to recruit candidates at the same pace over the next three years.      

Orissa should make efforts to have similar non-metal processing and non-thermal power related public sector units in Orissa.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Expressbuzz.com.

Minister of State (independent charge) for Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Sarada Prasad Nayak today outlined his plans for all-round development of his home city Rourkela by including it in the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP).

Addressing mediapersons here, Nayak spoke about formation of greater Rourkela by including suburban pockets like Kalunga, Vedvyas and Fertiliser Township under the Central Government funded CDP. He said if everything goes as expected, in three years the Steel City would get a facelift with a fresh sewerage system, solid waste management project and rehabilitation of slum-dwellers on a 30-acre land. …

Update: The media coverage of the insult and its reaction is being archived at http://upainsults.orissalinks.com/.

When Manmohan Singh became the PM of India in 2004 one of the first things his government did was shift an announced for National Institute of Sciences (NIS) in Bhubaneswar to Kolkata and when Orissa MPs discussed with him about Orissa’ development he is reported to have replied "Money does not grow in trees." It took Orissa-wide demonstrations and a supreme court case for Dr. Singh to make amends and declare the establishment of a National Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhubaneswar. In 2004 he humiliated Orissa by not having a single minister from Orissa. Eventually he added a minister of state from Orissa. Somewhat similar to the NIS case, Dr. Singh’s HRD minister of state had mentioned in a speech in Patna that there will be an IIT in Orissa, but subsequently Orissa was not in the list. Again, after a lot of protests and demonstrations in Orissa, the PM  included Orissa as one of the locations of a new IIT.

Fast forward to 2009 and now Congress gets 6 Lok Sabha MPs from Orissa, 4 more than what it had in 2004. Among the 6 MPs is an ex-chief minister and a tribal (Hemanada Biswal)  who beat the national vice president of BJP in winning his seat, an ex-cabinet minister of parliamentary affairs and tourism, (Srikant Jena), an ex-minister of state of Railways (Bhakta Das), an ex state minister (Amarnath Pradhan), and two young MPs (one of them a tribal).

It is the PM’s prerogative to chose his team and there is no requirement that there has to be ministers from each state. After all these ministers are supposed to be ministers of all of India and it should not matter  where they come from or what their caste is; all that should matter is that they are qualified and they have the PM’s confidence. So objectively one shouldn’t have a problem that he has chosen only one minister of state from Orissa and chosen 3 cabinet ministers and one minister of state from Karnataka, where it got 6 MPs, the same number as Orissa. But the insult to Orissa comes from his demotion to the minister he chose from Orissa. He has picked as a minister of state, not even with independent charge,  Mr. Srikant Jena, who was earlier a cabinet minister  of India and had Parliamentary affairs and tourism as part of his portfolio. If Dr. Singh did not have confidence in Mr. Jena he need not have picked him. But what is he trying to convey by picking him and giving him a demoted position other than showing his and his party’s continued dislike and insulting attitude towards Orissa.

Dr. Singh: You have won the mandate and I guess like your earlier insult to Orissa when you were reported to have said "Money does not grow in trees", you can do whatever you like. But India is watching and they can see how you continue to insult a state and its people. People of Orissa, including those who recently voted for Congress, are fast losing faith on you and are dreading the next five years, where your ministers will take their booties to their home state.

This is not suppose to happen; your ministers are supposed to look after the whole country and not their own state; but based on the past 5 years, where your ministers have focused less on India as a whole and more on their own states, India’s poorer states, with little representation in your ministry are going to get poorer. For introspection, you may look at your past Railway minister’s boasting about what he did for his home state and compare it with states like Orissa from where it got the most revenue, and what you and your past HRD minister have done for higher education and science and technology for your respective home states.

As per Orissa, it seems like humiliating Orissa is your favorite sport or perhaps your lucky charm, as you seem to be again starting your innings with that.

Reaction from other quarters: 

• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Naveen-ups-the-ante-over-states-share-in-PM-team/articleshow/4590533.cms.
• http://orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=12813.
• http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=12812.
• http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/2009/05/congress-humiliates-orissa-as-srikant.html.
• http://www.indopia.in/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/584891/National/1/20/1.
• http://www.tathya.in/2009/story.asp?sno=2972.
• Congress humiliates Orissa again: Expressbuzz.com.
• http://www.indianexpress.com/news/MoS-for-just-Jena-an-insult–says-Orissa-Cong/467123.
• http://dailypioneer.com/179369/Why-Cong-injustice-to-Orissa-continues.html.
• http://dailypioneer.com/179368/UPA-has-neglected-Orissa-again-Naveen.html.
• http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/orissa-neglected-in-upa-ministry-naveen/359452/.
• http://www.orissadiary.com/Shownews.asp?id=12815.
• Orissa peeved: Telegraph.