Bhubaneshwar: On the eve of the Biju Janata Dal’s 20th foundation day, party president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said regional parties should have better coordination to strengthen cooperative federalism.

“It is important to have coordination among regional parties for strengthening cooperative federalism,” Patnaik told PTI in an interview here.

Asked whether the BJD would take a lead to unite regional parties to help each other, he said, “As a regional party, we have our own state priorities.”

Patnaik thanked Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) for supporting Odisha over the Mahanadi river water dispute with Chhattisgarh and Polavaram issue with Andhra Pradesh, respectively.

TMC MPs recently supported BJD members when the Mahanadi water row was raised in the Lok Sabha, while TRS had offered to stand by Odisha in its fight against the Polavaram multi- purpose project in Andhra Pradesh.

On the Centre’s demand for payment of charges by Odisha and other states for deployment of central armed forces (CAF) to deal with Left-Wing Extremists, Patnaik said the central government should “take care” of these expenditures.

“Absolutely. The Centre should take care of this (expenditure on CAF deployment), and we keep raising this point through all the forums available,” he told PTI.

The Centre had recently asked the Odisha government to pay Rs 3,000 crore towards charges for deployment of central forces in the state.

On the open market borrowings of Rs 5,500 crore by Odisha so far this fiscal, Patnaik said, “Our borrowing is within the limit and we are strictly following the fiscal discipline.”

The chief minister said he has been in touch with the Centre which recently suggested steps for financial inclusion in different matters. As about 4,300 gram panchayats in Odisha lacked banking facilities, the state finds it difficult to go for financial inclusion in all spheres.

“I have been following the matter with the central government. The infrastructure facilities are being built to meet the needs,” he said.

Patnaik said his government is seriously contemplating steps for preservation of ancient temples and monuments which remained neglected for years due to lack of funds.

On whether the state government would create its own fund to preserve heritage sites, the chief minister said, “We are taking it up and you will get some good news in this regard shortly.