Bhubaneswar: March 3: Odisha needed a “double engine” government to accelerate the pace of development, said Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, here on Sunday, and added the Biju Janata Dal-led Odisha government did not believe in cooperative federalism.
Stressing the need for a “double-engine” government, Sinha said the people of Odisha will get the full benefit of the central government’s schemes only with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre as well as the state.
“The pace of development is higher when the Centre and the state have governments led by the same political party. Several development projects have been affected in Odisha due to the lack of support form the state government,” Sinha said.
Stating that the BJP government believed in and practiced cooperative federalism, he said the problem was the party in power in Odisha did not believe in cooperative federalism.
“We have launched many projects in Odisha and want the state to develop. But if we don’t get support from the state government and the BJD, how are we going to call it cooperative federalism,” he remarked.
He said that Rs 1.36 lakh crore central projects were stalled in Odisha due to the state government’s non-cooperation. Several schemes were facing bottlenecks due to land acquisition and forest clearance, he added.
He said the Centre was transforming the aviation sector in Odisha with development of airstrips at several places, including Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Jeypore, Utkela and Paradip.
Sinha said at the 40 per cent annual growth, the Biju Patnaik International Airport at Bhubaneswar was one of the fastest growing airports in the country.
It will soon get a third terminal with the Rs 935 crore investment, which would boost flight operations and increase passenger handling capacity to 90 lakh from 30 lakh, he said.
“If we think about the future of Bhubaneswar, we need to plan for a second airport. We have approached the state government in this regard,” he said. (IANS)
