The Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) formed to look after the interests of the Western region of Odisha is in a fix over the location of its headquarters. And the inability of the Council to make a decision has provided ample opportunity to the Opposition to target the government.
While the logic says that a development council formed for a particular geographical region should naturally have its office in the same zone, in the case of WODC, the sense seems to have flawed because, the headquarters of the WODC is located at Bhubaneswar, far away from Western Odisha.
And the reason, though surprising, isn’t implausible as all. As per reports, there isn’t any consensus the Council has yet arrived for the WODC headquarters’ location. Many MLAs and MPs in different Western Odisha districts rooting for their respecting area for establishing the headquarters has created a stalemate in the Council.
BJD MLA from Lanjigarh said, “No consensus could be made on the location of the head office. Hailing from Kalahandi, I had raised my demand to shift the WODC headquarters to Kalahandi district in the last Council meeting.”
While it looks odd from the outside, but the vote bank and appeasement politics is allegedly the inherent cause behind this conundrum. And the Opposition has made sure to rake up this issue to corner the State government more than once.
BJP MP from Bargarh, Suresh Pujari said, “It has been 25 years and the State government still does not know where to put the WODC headquarters. When it’s Bhubaneswar, the government does not even blink before taking a decision. But with Western Odisha, it takes the same government years.”
Similarly, Congress MLA, Adhiraj Panigrahi threw salvo at the BJD regime saying, “The government is deliberately delaying taking any decision to create fissures among the WODC members. The ruling BJD takes every decision with the election in mind.”
It is pertinent to mention here that after failing to come to a unanimous decision on the location of the headquarters, the WODC in its last Council meeting in May this year had decided to maintain the status quo for the next three years. It means, the WODC headquarters will remain in Bhubaneswar till 2025.
A WODC press statement said, “The members differed in their suggestions regarding the ideal location of the same. In view of the lack of general agreement, no unanimous decision has been arrived at.”
“WODC headquarters issue is a sensitive matter attached with emotions of the people of Western Odisha. Therefore the government may be requested to continue the status quo till at least three years,” the statement read.