BHUBANESWAR: Taking objection to Cooperation Minister Damodar Rout’s announcement that Rupay debit cards will be provided to 11.40 lakh farmers of Odisha by the end of March, the BJP on Monday urged the State Election Commission (SEC) to take action against the Minister for violating model code of conduct.
A delegation of the BJP led by vice-president Sameer Mohanty met the State Election Commissioner RN Senapati and submitted a memorandum registering protest against Rout’s violation of election rules.
The delegation further complained against Managing Director of Odisha State Cooperative Bank TK Panda for speaking to the media about the Government’s plan to install point of sale (POS) machines in all agricultural cooperative societies in the State to facilitate cash withdrawal by farmers.
“All these announcements are intended to influence the farmers in favour of the ruling BJD. This amounts to clear violation of election code of conduct,” the memorandum stated.
The BJP urged the SEC to restrain the State Government from such violations and take action as per law against the violators.