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Bhubaneswar: Accusing the Centre of doing injustice to Odisha by not according Special Category Status (SCS) tag while considering the same for Seemandhra region of the Andhra Pradesh, Biju Yuva Janta Dal (BYJD), the youth wing of BJD, on Monday staged a dharna in front of Raj Bhavan here.
The ruling party's MLAs and several activists also held a meeting in protest against the Centre's alleged negligence.
Meanwhile, police arrested some of the leaders and activists apprehending deterioration of law and order situation in one of the high security areas of the city.
"We have been demanding SCS to Odisha for years. To satisfy the mean political motives, Congress government at the Centre has declared to accord SCS tag to Seemandhra. We are protesting against the Centre's way of ignoring just demands of our state," said BJD MLA and youth wing chief Sanjay Das Burma adding that the members of the organization would again stage demonstrations at district headquarters on February 26.
The BJD leader also alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was acting as Congress party's PM.
However, Congress party refuted the charges and suggested the BJD government to present the State's demands before the centre only after holding an all-party meet.
"Whenever a state is divided usually special compensation is given to the affected parties. That does not mean it is not an accordance of SCS to a state. There are differences between special compensation and SCS tag. The ruling party should understand the difference," said senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra.
Notably, last week the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared the Center was considering to give SCS to Seemandhra region, residual part of Andhra Pradesh, for five years.
