Doon 'dosti' gets Naveen Rs20,000 cr

Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik has done what few others in his position have been able to — extract an assurance of Rs20,000 crore from Union transport minister Kamal Nath. The money, to be given to the state in installments over the next five years, will be spent on improving national highways in Orissa.

Patnaik wouldn’t have been able to do this without a bit of Doon School ‘string-pulling’. On Monday, he called on his Doon classmate in New Delhi, the union minister for road transport and highways, Kamal Nath, who gave him a patient hearing. The results were for all to see.

That’s not all. Patnaik’s schoolmate was kind in other ways too. In addition to the 20,000 crore, he raised the allocation to Rs500 crore for development of national highways and upped the grant for maintenance from the existing 12 crore to 40 crore. When Naveen told him how the state needed its highways to have six lanes, the minister immediately directed NHAI officials to speed up work and finish the task.

According to a senior IAS officer, the money wouldn’t have come through if the chief minister and the Union road transport minister (both were born in 1946), had not studied in the same school.

Unfortunately, Patnaik’s charms have not worked on other ministers. He had been running from pillar to post in New Delhi to get funds for flood victims and for the expansion of railway networks.

Patnaik feels particularly betrayed by the actions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former home minister Shivraj Patil. The duo visited the state after the floods and promised relief packages of Rs200 crore and Rs500 crore. But the Centre only released Rs25 crore in the first phase and Rs98 crore in the second phase. Moreover, after the general elections in April, the Centre asked the state to return Rs80 crore.

Since then, Patnaik has been shooting off letters to Centre, asking that the state be given its share. On Tuesday, he called on PM Manmohan Singh. “I met the prime minister and discussed with him the funds that the Centre owes us for the floods that wreaked havoc in my state last year,” Patnaik said. Sources said he has also found to make much headway there.

Nor has he been lucky with Lalu Prasad and Mamata Banerjee. Though Orissa contributes huge in terms of revenue to railways, Naveen failed to get them to bestow anything on Orissa. Maybe he didn’t cut ice with them since they did not study in Doon School!.