Bhubaneswar, Feb. 22: The Naveen Patnaik government has decided not to allow the BJP-led Narendra Modi government to "appropriate" the legacy of Odia freedom fighter Buxi Jagabandhu.

To counter the Centre's plans of commemorating the 200 years of Jagabandhu-led Paika rebellion, the state government will organise events to highlight his heroic history.

As a part of its policy to identify with Odisha's local heroes with a view to making inroads into the BJD's vote bank, the Centre has decided to commemorate the completion of 200 years of Buxi Jagabandhu-led Paika rebellion of Khurda, a valiant uprising of soldiers against the Raj in 1817.

The Centre has also allocated funds in the Union budget for this purpose. Sensing that the Centre will take mileage from the issue, the state government has come up with the plan to commemorate the event. There were hints of this in governor S.C. Jamir's speech in the Assembly today.

Making his stand clear that the state government would continue to work for the underdeveloped, the governor highlighted the state's impressive achievements in terms of economic growth despite the Centre reducing funds under various schemes. "The size of the economy has increased by 22.27 per cent in real terms (at 2011-12 prices) during the past six years, in terms of gross state domestic product, achieving the annual growth rate of 6.23 per cent," Jamir said.

He said the real per capita income increased from Rs 47,632 in 2011-12 to Rs 61,678 in 2016-17 at 2011-12 price rates. "The economy's growth rate, which had been 4.61 per cent in 2012-2013, reached 7.94 per cent in 2016-17."

Jamir also explained how the government was working for the tribal people and aimed to provide shelter and medical care to them. "My government is introducing an eight-year integrated plan called Odisha Particular Vernacular Tribal Group Empowerment and Livelihood Improvement Programme at an estimated cost of Rs 795.61 crore, which will provide improved livelihood, food and nutrition security for 32,091 people across 542 villages," said the governor.

For the underprivileged, the state government is committed to convert all kutcha houses in the rural areas into the pucca ones by 2019. "Construction of 10 lakh pucca houses during the past two years has been possible due to the sincere and relentless efforts of my government," he said, adding that a new scheme - Construction of Rental Housing Complex in Urban areas - was going to be taken up for providing temporary accommodation with basic amenities at affordable rent to migrant construction workers. "A helpdesk for migrant labourers of the state is being created in states, such as Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," said Jamir.