BHUBANESWAR: Though the post of chairman of the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) is vacant for over a month, no steps have been initiated to fill up giving rise to a large scale resentment among the people. While a large number of aspirants has made the task difficult for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the inordinate delay in the appointment of chairman has also led critics to raise doubts about the importance of the post. Though the budget of the council has increased from Rs. 5 crore to Rs. 50 crore, lack of any real authority to execute projects of its choice has made the body quite irrelevant, former minister and first chairman of WODC Narasingh Mishra said.The lack of interest in appointing the chairman has proved the point that there was no real work for the council, or else how can the post is vacant for the last one month, he said.The council still has no executing agency, nor has a staff of its own. It also does not have freedom to plan development programmes.
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