By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR:On BJD’s protest against MMDR Amendment Act 2026, BJD leader Sujata Rout Karthikeyan says, “Odisha has a constitutional right to tax its mineral wealth and use that money for the development and progress of the people of the state. Exercising this right, the then CM Naveen Patnaik had enacted a law in 2004. Mining companies opposed that law and went to Court.
For 20 years, the BJD, under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik, fought a legal battle in the Courts for the Constitutional rights of Odisha and for the progress and development of the state. Finally, in 2024, Supreme Court, in a 9-judge Constitutional Bench, delivered an order in favour upholding the rights of Odisha.
This could have led to huge financial resources for the state, which would have changed the trajectory of the development of the state and her people. However, in 2026, the MMDR Amendment Act was brought in by the BJP which stripped Odisha of its Constitutional powers and stopped these financial resources from coming to the state.
