The Congress on Monday called for a change of government in the next election by launching a scathing attack on the ruling BJD for its all-round failure in the last 12 years during which crime against women touched nadir.
Addressing a meeting at Khelar on the seventh day of the party’s ‘Parivartan’ padayatra between Cuttack and Sakshigopal, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik alleged that murder, rape, theft and dacoity have increased many times during the BJD rule and people are insecure everywhere because of the growing Maoist menace. The law and order situation has deteriorated to such an extent that there does not seem to be a police establishment, he said.
The padayatra will conclude at Bakul Ban in Sakshigopal on Tuesday where senior Congress leaders, including Odisha in-charge Jagdish Tytler, will address a public meeting.
Alleging that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has completely failed to maintain law and order in the State though he holds the Home portfolio, Patnaik said in many cases police had failed to arrest the culprits, though freely moving around.
It has been more than a year since Nabarangpur MLA Jagabandhu Majhi was shot dead in his constituency, Patnaik said, adding that till now police failed to arrest even one person involved in the murder. The OPCC president said Ganjam, the home district of the Chief Minister, is most crime-prone in the State.
Criticising the State Government for its failure to properly implement the ‘modernisation of police force scheme’, Patnaik alleged that crores of rupees provided by the Centre under the scheme remain unutilised because of the inefficiency of the government. Therefore, such a government should be changed, Patnaik said.
OPCC general secretary Satyabrata Patro criticised the government for the power tariff hike which has hit the common man. He alleged that BJD workers are collecting donations from the beneficiaries of the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and old age pension scheme. People of the State will giving a fitting reply to the BJD for these irregularities in the 2014 election, he added.