Newly-elected Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi (BJP) is now busy in the national capital meeting party heavyweights and getting accustomed with her new role in the Parliament. The bureaucrat-turned-politician talks to Kuldeep Singh of Orisssa POST on her new role. Excerpts:
You belong to Bihar. How much difficult was it for you to contest and won elections in Odisha?
I’m an Odia daughter-in-law. I think Odia, dream Odia and I speak Odia. I have spent over 20 years in Odisha. I ought to know Odia, if I had to become competent. So, I actually taught Odia to myself in the initial years of my service in Odisha and that finally paid dividends. In fact, I’m very comfortable in Odia currently than Hindi.
What are the major issues the women face in Odisha and how will you resolve them?
Lack of economic empowerment of our women is one of the major issues. Fifty per cent of the population of Odisha is women. We have a huge number of self-help groups but if you go to women they say they don’t have work in hand. I think we need to have a lot many micro enterprises in gram panchayats, blocks and districts in the state. Huge number of micro enterprises with proper forward and backward linkages in the state is required. Dignity and security of women is major concern. If we see National Crime Records Bureau report of 2016, we are third worst in the country as far as rapes and domestic violence cases are concerned. So, this is a major concern for Odisha. When I used to walk in the villages during the campaigning, I would find all the women are going behind doors and I think there is some kind of lack of confidence. Self-confidence can only come through economic empowerment.
What are the major issues in your constituency for which you will work in coming years?
Poverty… even in Bhubaneswar also… If you see the poverty indices and per capita income of the states we are 25th in the country. I saw poverty even within 15km of Bhubaneswar city, in the villages in my constituency. I think this is something very disappointing and disturbing. Most of the people go to Surat, Bangalore for employement as there is no employment opportunity in the state. We need to provide better opportunity to the people in the state.
The BJD has been demanding passing of Women Reservation Bill which is pending in Lok Sabha. Will you raise this issue in the Lower House?
Upfront, I cannot say anything about it. I would like to examine it properly and then I can comment on it.
The BJD is demanding special category status to Odisha. What will be your stand on the demand?
Why should Odisha need special category status? We are very rich in natural resources. We have good forest cover. We have good rainfall. We are a very beautiful state. We have good amount of water in our state. We can be a hub of tourism and hospitality. There is no reason we remain poor. We need to put our efforts in tandem. We will definitely move forward up the ladder… up the economic ladder in the country. There is no need of special category status for Odisha.
Though BJP’s performance was dismal in Assembly elections, whom you would like to give credit for winning eight Lok Sabha seats in Odisha?
One is of course the Modi wave and I will also give the credit to the numerous BJP karyakartas (workers) in the state. The entire BJP team worked very aggressively and I think in a strategic manner. It was a team effort.