Power, water in every village by 2012 says Orissa CM.

Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced that every village in Odisha would be provided with electricity and drinking water by 2012.

Addressing the state-level Panchayati Raj Divas celebrations, coinciding with the birthday of former chief minister Biju Patnaik, at the Janata Maidan here, the chief minister said that the salary of Samiti Members of Zilla Parishad would be hiked 50 per cent. A Bill regarding this will be brought out in the State Assembly, he said. Lots of work under MGNREGA has been done in the villages and funds spent and Patnaik assured further work.

He urged the panchayat functionaries to ensure that development and welfare activities reach the doorstep of the people. He also said that the panchayat representatives would be imparted computer and other training and efforts would be made to remove poverty from rural areas.

BJD think-tank and Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra said that if a conspiracy had not been hatched, Biju Babu would have become the prime minister and taken Odisha ahead. The state government is making more plans for decentralisation of power to ensure development.

Mahapatra said that the Centre would earmark Rs 2,756 crore and the State Rs 907 crore to be spent for development of rural areas till 2014.

The salary hike of panchayat members would cost the state exchequer Rs 251 crore. Like the MPLAD and MLALAD funds, I would request the state government to provide Rs 1 crore per year to the Zilla Parishad chairman and vice-chairman, Mahapatra said.

Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patsani, present on the occasion, pointed out that the Centre bowed down before the Naveen Patnaik government on the Polavaram and Haldia Port issue. The meeting was presided over by panchayati raj minister Prafulla Samal.

Among others, sports and youth affairs minister Pravin Kumar Bhanja Deo, Bhubaneswar (Central) MLA Bijay Kumar Mohanty, MLAs Bhagirathi Badjena and Ashok Panda, panchayati raj secretary Surendra Kumar Tripathy also spoke. The chief minister released a quarterly magazine, Panchayat Samachar on the occasion