The BJP legislators from western Odisha have urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to enhance the spending limit of MLAs from Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) fund to Rs 5 crores per year.
BJP legislators including Jayanarayan Mishra, Bhabani Shankar Bhoi, Kusum Tete, Mukesh Mahaling, Nauri Nayak, Subash Chandra Panigrahi and Shankar Oram have written a letter to the Chief Minister for this purpose.
The MLAs said they have been allowed to submit project proposals amounting to Rs 1 crore each per year, when the budget of WODC was Rs 100 crore per annum. Now, the government has doubled the annual budgetary allocation of WODC to Rs 200 crore.
Therefore, the BJP legislators urged Patnaik to allow each MLA of WODC area to submit project proposals of Rs 5 crores per year so that they can give sustainable proposals for the benefit of people of WODC area.
The WODC was established with an objective for all round socio-economic upliftment, educational and cultural advancement of the people residing within the area.
The Council comprises of 10 districts i.e. Bargarh, Bolangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Subarnapur, Sundargarh and Athamallick sub-division of Angul district.