Bhubaneswar: The Odisha food supply and consumer welfare minister, RP Swain, has urged the union food supply minister Ram Vilash Paswan not to shift the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) office in Odisha to Patna.

Swain, in a letter to the Paswan on Saturday, has said that the minister should intervene and stop the attempt to merger the Bhubaneswar regional office with the Patna office. He has stated that the merger would seriously jeopardise the interest of the people of Odisha.

“The Bhubaneswar regional office of the CWC has been playing a vital role in storage and warehousing of various commodities including foodgrains and notified commodities of Food Corporation of India as well as Odisha State Civil Supply Corporation. Established in 1990, the Bhubaneswar regional office, which is one of the 15 such offices in the country, has now the operational capacity of 3.48 lakh tonnes catering to the needs of storage at 21 locations in 15 districts in the state. More than 90% of the employees in the regional office are local Odia people. Moreover, the region is having 90% occupancy and continuously giving profit during the last five years. “

The Odisha minister has urged the union minister, “I would like to request your personal intervention for allowing the regional office at Bhubaneswar to continue as such in modification of the earlier decision of its merger with Patna office”.