By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Biju Janata Dal and Opposition Leader Naveen Patnaik are misleading the people of the state by repeatedly telling lies regarding the MMDR Act and natural resource provision in Odisha, which is very ridiculous. The people of Odisha are not so stupid that they will accept the same lie as truth if it is told repeatedly. Yesterday’s verdict of the Honorable Odisha High Court has made it clear how the previous BJD government created a way to give undue favors to private companies by closing the bell. MP and former Union Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has posted in this regard on X.
Shri Pradhan mentioned that the Hon’ble Orissa High Court has categorically rejected the demand of 150 million tonnes of bauxite supply made by the Biju Janata Dal government in 2004 to a certain private industry. The Hon’ble High Court has made it clear that the existing law cannot be ignored by making old promises regarding natural resources. After the 45 amendments to the Clean MDR Act and MCR 2016 Rules of the Centre by the Modi government, a conversion factor was applied to the average selling price of bauxite. This had increased the price of bauxite from Rs 750 to Rs 1707 per tonne. Due to this rule, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) would have benefited and Odisha would have received additional revenue of thousands of crores of rupees through royalty, DMF (DMF) and NMET.
But the then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote separate letters to the Central Government on 1 February 2020 (Letter No. 1044) and 7 October 2020 (Letter No. 8569/SM) requesting them to reduce the conversion factor and implement the minimum price desired by the private companies. This clearly shows that this letter was written to give favour to a particular private company at the expense of the state interest, which was rejected by the Central Government.
In this context, Shri Pradhan has demanded answers to the following questions from Naveen Babu. What was your real motive behind requesting the Central Government to reconsider the law that is very beneficial for the state, without implementing it? In whose interest and to please whom did you take such a step? Isn’t the fact that a certain private company has been owing about Rs 5,400 crore for a long time the result of your wrong decision? What is the real secret behind giving undue favor to a private company by sacrificing the interests of the people of Odisha and losing the state’s revenue worth lakhs of crores of rupees? Naveen Babu should accept the reality and reveal the truth to the people of Odisha and stop giving misleading information, Shri Pradhan clarified.
