I feel honoured that I have been sent to the Upper House. At the same time, for this honour, I am basically obliged to the people of Orissa. I will try my best to bring more funds from the Centre for the development of the State and keenly monitor the funds already allocated by the Centre for the various projects in the State.

We are very much thankful to the people of Orissa who have reposed their faith in us. As my party has shared power at both the State and the Centre, our responsibility has doubled. As you know BJP is a party with difference; we will work in an effective and transparent way to fulfil the demands of the State's people.

First of all we will fulfil the basic minimum requirements of the people specially in the coastal districts of Orissa which have been ravaged in the recent natural calamity. Besides rehabilitation programmes, our priorities will be to stabilize the State's economy which has been almost totally ruined in successive Congress regimes. We will keenly monitor financial assistance from the Central Government for Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) districts. We will also take care of the vanvasis who are in distress since independence although they constitute 25 per cent of the total population of the State. The State Government will have special schemes to exploit the forest products of the State for the economic development of the people, specially the vanvasis.

During the previous 5-year Congress regime the loan burden on the State has grown from 5 thousand crore to 17 thousand crore. In order to revive the economy we need proper planning and strong will power. We will lay stress more on the development of the agriculture sector and agro-based industries. For that we need all kinds of help from the Central Government. We are very much thankful to the Prime Minister, who has already offered 300 crore rupees to the CM Naveen Patnaik during his first meeting after becoming the Chief Minister.

Things can be done in a planned way. The Prime Minister has already declared that money will not be a problem for the development of Orissa. He himself assured that he will personally take care of Orissa. But before that we will discuss all the matters in the BJP-BJD Coordination Committee meeting for a viable plan about how best to spend the allocated funds.

Look, since Independence the natural resources of Orissa have not been exploited properly. Orissa is full of iron ore, buxite, minerals, potential for hydro-electricity and luxuriant forests. Due to some self-centred leaders of the State and Central Governments Orissa has remained backward. This time we are going to have proper planning to exploit the natural resources during the next five years.

See, at this critical juncture where the State's financial condition is frightfully shaky, we will encourage only the agriculture sector and the agro-based industries. The educated unemployed youth can directly or indirectly involve themselves in the agro-based industries. The new government will offer all possible facilities to the unemployed youths in this sector. In due course of time, we will conceive further plans to ease the unemployment problem.