ROURKELA:After Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik sought to nail down Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram following inordinate delay over construction of the second Brahmani bridge at Rourkela, the BJP on Wednesday hit back by stating that the ruling BJD would not succeed in scoring political points.
Incidentally, Jual is BJP’s only Lok Sabha Member from Odisha and he continues to remain under attack from BJD and Congress over the inordinate delay in construction of second Brahmani bridge and upgradation of RSP-run Ispat General Hospital. Both projects were announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 1, 2015.
State BJP secretary Dhiren Senapati on Wednesday said work on the bridge project is in progress and accused Sundargarh unit of BJD of carrying out false propaganda and the CM of issuing misleading statement. The Bharatiya Janata Yuba Morcha (BJYM) on Thursday will hold a protest against the BJD, he informed.
Senapati also pointed to the reply letter of Union Minister for Road Transport and National Highways Nitin Gadkari sent to the CM on Tuesday and said it is self-explanatory.The six-lane second Brahmani bridge is coming up at Balughat of Rourkela as part of the first package for expansion of the Birmitrapur-Rourkela section of NH-143 at a cost of `381.75 crore and work has been awarded to GKC Projects Ltd.
Meanwhile, a section of BJP leaders at Rourkela is unhappy with BJP MLA Dilip Ray after he welcomed the bridge issue protest of BJD stating it was in larger public interest.