Bhubaneswar: Opposition Congress and BJP Tuesday put the BJD on mat over its ‘vague’ promises and alleged failure on various fronts.
Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, who participated in the discussions on the appropriation bill 2017, blasted the BJD government alleging that it has failed on all fronts and failed to fulfill its promises within the time-limit.
“The government’s claim of minimum guarantee in every locality appears to be vague and it has failed to fulfill its promise in every sector including education, health, irrigation, agriculture and energy,” Mishra said.
To substantiate his claims, the LoP said, “1.8lakh teaching posts in school and mass education department is lying vacant in the state while the student-teacher ratio is also above 30:1.”
“For reduction of poverty, a thrust on education is must. But this government seems to have forgotten it,” he added.
Mishra also highlighted the crumbling heath sector in the state. He severely criticised the state government over the delay in construction of a medical college in Bolangir, his own constituency.
Mishra also pointed out how the state government has failed to keep its promise of providing 35 per cent irrigation facility to every block within five years.
Non-fulfillment of promise for setting up of the second agriculture university in KBK region and non-implementation of waiver of electricity tariff for farmers as promised by the BJD in 2009 were the other issues the LoP highlighted to pull up the government.
He also slammed the state government for its failure in resolving the Mahanadi dispute and accused it of lacking ‘willingness’ to sort out the matter.
The BJP members also came down heavily on the ruling party alleging its failure in protecting the interest of people. BJP MLA Bibhuti Bhusan Harichandan raised the issue of shortage of doctors and asked the government to take adequate measures.
Opposition members derided the government for its alleged improper expenditure and said that they won’t support the appropriation bill moved by the finance minister as they don’t trust this government.
However, the treasury bench members strongly defended the state government and wanted to know why the Opposition was mum on the recognition the state government has received in the field of agriculture for production, disaster management for tackling of
cyclones and in other fields.
Countering the Opposition’s claim of inappropriate expenditure, BJD MLA Arun Sahoo highlighted how the debt burden in some of the BJP ruled states at present has exceed lakhs of crore while it is only `66,000 crore on the part of Orissa.
“The debt burden of Gujarat is 2.5 lakh crore while in states like UP and Maharashtra it has exceeded `4lakh crore. And in Haryana, which would be only half the size of Orissa, the loan burden is about `1.44 lakh crore,” he said.
Rs 26.55 cr spent towards airfare of CM, ministers
Bhubaneswar: The state government has spent more than `26.55 crore towards airfare of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and other ministers in three years. The parliamentary affairs minister BK Arukha, said in a written reply to BJP member Dilip Ray, in the Assembly Tuesday.
He said the expenditure on account of air travel was for the period 2015-17. While `8.43 crore was spent towards airfares of Chief Minister and other ministers during 2015, the amount was `11.14 crore in 2016 and `6.97 crore in 2017, the minister said, adding, this included fare for travel within the state and outside.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had used a chopper 104 times for his movement within the state and other ministers used
choppers for 45 times within a span of three years, Arukha said.
He said the Chief Minister had undertaken flights outside Orissa on 11 occasions in the three years while one minister undertook
air travel outside the state only once.
Agencies
