Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Congress, Sunday, fired salvos against the state transport minister Padmanabha Behera for putting forth misleading information in the affidavit submitted before the Election Commission while contesting elections.
Odisha Congress leader , Sunday, held a press conference and demanded police action against the leader for giving false information about his educational qualification. The leader cited documents to prove the minister was guilty of furnishing false information.
Mishra said, “The minister had filed false information relating to his educational degrees before the Election Commission. He contested multiple assembly polls since 2004 and had given contradictory information relating to his degrees.”
Mishra said that in his 2014 poll affidavit the minister had mentioned that he has passed class Xth. Again, during the 2019 election affidavit, he stated that he is only class VIII pass. “How can such a thing happen that with time the education degrees decreased? We seek action against the minister,” Mishra told the media.
The leader pointed out that that the case has already reached judicial corridors of the state but no action has been taken against the minister. The Congress leader claimed that a petition was earlier moved before the Orissa High Court in this regard. On January 9, the HC is said to have asked the Subarnapur Police to investigative the case relating to his educational degree fiasco.
In his demand to the state government, Mishra had asked the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to dismiss the erring minister and file a criminal case against the leader. “He should be shunted out of the Cabinet for giving misleading information in the affidavit and therefore misleading the public at large,” Mishra said.
This comes days after the party claimed that BJD MP from Kendrapara Anubhav Mohanty had fudged his educational degrees and cited contradictory information in his affidavit before the Election Commission.
