Sunday 10 January 2010

Students’ body demands Bank of Odisha HQs at Berhampur

Berhampur: While praising the recent long-awaited decision of the State Government to form a sub-committee under the State Revenue Minister for exploring the establishment of Bank of Odisha, the South Odisha Students’ Association (SOSA) has requested Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for establishment of Bank of Odisha with its headquarters at Berhampur.

Having taken the logical first step, we do expect that the State Government would announce the formation of the Bank of Odisha with its corporate headquarters at Berhampur as it is logical that the rewards must go together with performance, stated president of SOSA RP Tripathy in a letter to the Chief Minister. The headquarters of the proposed Bank of Odisha at Berhampur in recognition of its standing in banking, business and commerce in the State will send the right signals and help the cities of Odisha focus on their core competencies, he wrote in his letter. This will become the first State-level headquarters of any establishment of any sector that will be located in Berhampur city. Further, the headquarters of Bank of Odisha in Berhampur will ensure distributive justice in the establishment of State institutions and the State Government must give Berhampur the due recognition that it deserves through this initiative, he added.
Justifying Berhampur as the ideal location for establishing the bank headquarters, Tripathy stated in the letter that Berhampur city has contributed immensely to the vibrancy, cultural and social life and above all economic growth of Odisha. Even with inadequate State support, Berhampur city has carved a niche for itself and has grown exponentially in the spheres of business, transport and commerce. It still remains the only hope and bright spot in the utterly backward region of southern Odisha. The city has always been a great centre for business and commerce since the days of the British Raj and most importantly it has flourished solely based on local entrepreneurship and initiatives, he pointed out.
He further stated that the Greater Berhampur region with a population of close to seven lakhs is the second biggest urban cluster in the State and supportive Government policies are the need of the hour for its future growth that in turn will propel the growth of the State.
In the past, the shifting of Government offices like the State headquarters of OSRTC, jail training academy, cooperative training academy etc from Berhampur led to resentment among the locals and the State Government must undo these erroneous decisions through the establishment of the proposed Bank of Odisha with its headquarters at Berhampur, which the city rightly deserves, he observed.

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