New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The BJD MPs – Prasanna Acharya, Amar Patnaik, Sarojini Hembram and Sasmit Patra – met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday and requested her to release the pending Rs 700 crore to Odisha with respect to 114 ULBs.
It is the basic and performance grants arising out of 14th Finance Commission recommendations and the matter has been pending for the last four years.
She assured to immediately look into it.
The Union Finance Minister also mentioned that she had already spoken to the Reserve Bank of Indi (RBI) Governor on the BJD MP’s request for ensuring safety of the fixed deposit of the temple trust kept in crisis-hit YES bank.
Rajya Sabha members Achyuta Samanta had also accompanied these BJD MPs on Wednesday with the request to release Rs 545 crore deposited by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) in the private bank.
They also handed over a copy of a letter written by Odisha Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari to Sitharaman.
Pujari had requested the Union Finance Minister to issue necessary instruction to the RBI to allow release of deposits relating to the temple funds in YES Bank in the interest of millions of devotees of Lord Jagannath.
