Bhubaneswar, Sept 3: Today regarding the issue pertaining to Odisha’s inability to utilize the Central Funds, Odisha Agriculture minister, Pradeep Maharathi refuted allegations put upon him by the Union Agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh.
Maharathi informed the media that, last year from 2015-16, the Odisha government received a sum of Rs 54.45 crore for coconut cultivation, out of which, Rs 45.08 crore has been utilized and the Utilization Certificate (UC) for Rs 30 crore has been submitted. As funds were received during the latter part of the financial year, all of it could not be used. Targeting the Center, he alleged that how it is intentionally targeting the State government, the reason being that the Central government is actually scared of the popularity of Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik and this is the reason why Union ministers are frequently visiting Odisha and the government programs are being used to launch such political attacks.
He also questioned on the way the Opposition party, BJP’s State President, Basant Panda was felicitated during a government programme.
