Five questions to Odisha Chief Minister from citizens demanding IIM at Berhampur

Five questions to Odisha Chief Minister from citizens demanding IIM-Berhampur

1. Your Government claims that massive infrastructure development has taken place in the last 15 years in Odisha. Now when the Centre is asking the name of a city with basic infrastructure for IIM, your bureaucrats are suggesting that places outside the capital are not suitable for want of appropriate infrastructure. Where are you building the infrastructure then and at whose cost?

2. You promised before the elections that development of Berhampur will be your personal responsibility. After the elections your Government did not find Berhampur suitable among the 10 cities to be developed as a Smart City. The IDCO too has cancelled the IT Tower proposed in Berhampur city. You signed MoU for a domestic airport in Jharsuguda which is justified. But, why did you forget the Airport project for Berhampur?

3. More than 25 Central Institutes and labs have been established in various cities of the State. Why Berhampur city has been singled out and denied a single Central Institute/lab so far? Is this because Berhampur people never took extreme positions like fueling regional hatred or statehood demands unlike other places in Odisha? Are you not forcing the people of South Odisha to think on those lines through your highly biased decisions on Central Institutes?

4. There are innumerable examples across States where Central Institutes have been established in places without a functional airport even though most states have multiple airports.. When the State of Odisha has only 1 airport, why this is taken as the only parameter in deciding the location of central Institutes? Isn’t this a case of double whammy that first you don’t develop an airport in a city like Berhampur and then site the lack of airport to deny Central Institutes? (Thankfully the Central Govt has sanctioned a low cost airport in Berhampur but even that is not being factored in while deciding the location of IIM)

5. Lakhs of youth from Ganjam and South Odisha are forced to migrate outside the State for their livelihood. This trend has only aggravated in recent years. What your Govt has done in its last 15 years to generate employment for the students and youth of southern Odisha? (Not even a screw-bolt factory has been built in Ganjam/South Odisha in the last two decades, the period during which rest of India grew by leaps and bounds thanks to the reforms of 1991)

If the Chief Minister wants balanced development in Odisha then the IIM decision will be his real test. If he succumbs to the mentality of the past and denies Berhampur city the proposed IIM which it rightfully deserves then Odisha Govt will be responsible for perpetuating inequality in the State.