BJD to demand special category status for Orissa

 Vowing to safeguard the interest of Orissa, newly elected BJD MPs on Saturday announced to demand special category status for the state.We will reiterate Orissa’s demand for a special category state status. This time our voice will be louder and stronger, BJD parliamentary party leader in Lok Sabha Arjun Charan Sethi told reporters here.Quoting the party supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik that successive Central governments have neglected the state for decades, Sethi said that Orissa fulfilled all criteria required for being accorded special category status.Besides, he also pointed out that the state was losing hundreds of crores of rupees towards coal royalty as the Centre delayed revising the price.As the BJD MPs number had increased to 14 this time, Sethi said that their voice would be stronger than ever before. He said that raising issues of the state in the Parliament was their priority.Holding the Congress led UPA government responsible for delay in establishment of a branch of AIIMS in Bhubaneswar, the BJD MPs said that they would raise the issue in Parliament.