New Delhi, Nov 21: Today the Odisha government registered a complaint at the Water Resource Ministry saying that a tribunal should be formed for resolving the ongoing Mahanadi issue. Odisha CM, Naveen Patnaik informed the media after he had his meeting with the PM, Narendra Modi that the complaint has been filed under Section 3 of Interstate River Dispute Act for formation of tribunal and direction to Chhattisgarh government to hault construction work on Mahanadi’s upper areas.
Patnaik also took up the Polavaram issue with the Prime Minister. The further issues on which he had a meeting with Namo were that of demonetization thus requesting him to allow the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) to exchange and accept the specified bank notes, exempting the tribal living in the scheduled areas from submission of PAN to make deposits above Rs 50,000 in specified notes and allow women Self Help Groups (SHGs) to fully operate their bank accounts without any restrictions.
He further requested the Prime Minister to issue directives to Scheduled Commercial Banks to open Brick and Mortar Bank branches in all 4401 unbanked Gram Panchayats (GPs) of Odisha by March, 2019, ensure availability of at least 12-14 days of cash requirements with the bank branches in the state especially of Rs 100 and Rs 500 currency notes and start Mobile bank and temporary counters in rural areas to facilitate transactions in unbanked areas.
Further the CM also urged the PM for restoring the earlier annual adjustment process of releasing the State’s Share in Central taxes in order to give adequate liquidity to implement centrally sponsored State Plan schemes. He also requested the release of the balance capital cost of Rs 397 crore for the five new Medical Colleges and release of the balance Central Share of Rs 260 crore under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhijan (RUSA) with immediate effect.
