Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday questioned the Orissa government’s wisdom to focus on the mining sector instead of agriculture to achieve faster economic development.
He advised the state government to concentrate more on agriculture, saying, “This sector has the largest potentiality to uplift the masses.”
“In the last 13 to 14 years, the Orissa government has focused on the mining sector, completely ignoring agriculture and allied activities. It has led the state to nowhere. Poverty and underdevelopment still persists,” the minister, who had come to the state to address a public rally at Kendrapara, told reporters here. Stating that mining was both a “boon” and “bane”, Mr Ramesh said mining work could be pursued simultaneously with agriculture and allied activities.
Reacting to Mr Ramesh’s remarks, BJD vice-president Damodar Rout said the Union minister was “ill-informed” and his statement lacked substance. “Under the present BJD government, food production has gone up. After Karnataka, we are the second state in the country to make a separate agri-budget. Our agriculture policy is considered one of the best in the country,” Dr Rout said.
Alleging that the state government had failed on numerous occasions to submit utilisation certificates for central grants, the Union minister said the Centre allocated `5,000 crore in grants for laying 12,000 km of rural roads in the past three years. “However, its execution is poor,” he said, alleging that corruption, nepotism and maladministration ruled the roost.
Mr Ramesh said that the state government’s record on implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was hardly encouraging.