Odisha govt keeps away from Union minister’s review meet

(Surjit Dhal Bhubaneswar, Feb 23): A review meeting on Centre’s developmental projects in Odisha for which Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan was present, had to be cancelled here Saturday as no state government official turned up for it.

Pradhan, the petroleum minister, kept waiting for hours at the state guest house awaiting the arrival of Odisha government officers.

“My office had invited the state government for the review meeting. The chief secretary did not come. May be he was busy in some other work, bigger than this meeting,” he told reporters.

Stating that officials of GAIL and NHAI were also present for the meeting, Pradhan said several development and infrastructure projects of the petroleum, railways departments, besides NHAI and some other companies were pending.

“Today’s meeting was important as the state government’s approval is needed at different stages. These projects are important for the development of Odisha, may be the chief minister is not aware of it. Anyway, I will ask why the Odisha government did not give priority to this meeting,” a visibly angry Pradhan said.

None from the state government agreed to speak on the reason behind Chief Secretary A P Padhi not attending the Union minister’s meeting, considered significant as most of the projects are facing land acquisition problems and clearances were pending with the state government.