Jaleswar: Launching a scathing attack on the state government, Union Petroleum, Oil, and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the BJD government has failed to give water to farmland, drinking water to people, appoint teachers in schools and doctors in hospitals even after 19 years of rule.
Pradhan was addressing a party’s Jabab Maguchhi Odisha rally at Shantia Stadium in Jaleswar area of Balasore Sunday.
Lacing his speech with a touch of sarcasm, Pradhan observed, “Nineteen years have passed since the BJD came to power in the t is the state, but it is still leading the people of Odisha by showing lantern in the daytime. Scams and corruption have been rising in the state. The BJD government has shattered the economy of the state. A handpicked coterie of 2-5 unscrupulous employees has been on the fiddle”.
Referring to the alleged distress sale of paddy, the Union Minister said that farmers are being exploited at the procurement centres on the pretext of ‘katni-chhatni’ (under-weighing of paddy sacks) to raise party funds for the upcoming elections.
Pointing out to the vast stretches of un-irrigated lands on the banks of Subarnarekha in Jaleswar, Pradhan said that no farmland in the area has been irrigated by mega irrigation projects.
Raising the issue of chit funds, Pradhan trained his gun at the Chief Minister Naveen Patniak, asking that why the state government has been sitting pretty on the party leaders and Saroj Sahu, who was once close to the Chief Minister at the CMO, despite their involvement in the chit fund fraud.
He said that people are raising questions, but the government has become blind, mute and insensitive to major issues.
BJP leaders like former Nilagiri MLA Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Jaynarayan Mohanty, Madanmohan Datt, Lekhashree Samantasinghar, Sobhana Mohanty, Mahendranath Das and Shubhanakar Mohapatra also came down heavily on the state government.