BHUBANESWAR: The Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) activists burnt the effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday protesting against the raw deal meted out to Odisha in the railway budget. The BYJD activists took out a procession led by their president Sanjay Dasburma to register the protest. Describing the budget proposals as disappointing, Dasburma warned that the youth wing would launch an agitation against the step-motherly attitude of the Centre towards Odisha.
Stating that the Railways gets a revenue of Rs 8,500 crore for Odisha, Dasburma alleged that in return the demands of the State are ignored every year. He alleged that the meagre provisions for different ongoing projects would further delay their completion.
Several BJD MLAs, including Bijay Mohanty, Sameer Ranjan Das, Preeti Ranjan Ghadei, City Mayor Anant Narayan Jena, BJD general secretary Narendra Swain, Bhubaneswar district BYJD president Babu Singh, BYJD general secretary Bijay Nayak and president of Biju Chhatra Janata Dal Ranjit Mohapatra joined the procession.