BHUBANESWAR: Dubbing the “Ideal Chief Minister” award bestowed on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik by a Pune-based private university as ‘sponsored’, the State BJP on Monday asked the ruling BJD to explain why it failed on all fronts despite being in power for four consecutive terms.
It is surprising that Naveen is hailed as an ideal Chief Minister when Odisha is still considered one of the poorest states in the country and is lagging behind in many sectors, State BJP spokesperson Pitambar Acharya told a media conference here.
“When pregnant ladies are delivering babies on the roads and a tribal man had to carry his wife’s body on his shoulder for 10 kms, how can he become an ideal Chief Minister,” Acharya questioned.
Promising to bring industrial revolution in the State, the Chief Minister had signed more than 90 MoUs in steel and power sector. However, the promised investment from the project proponents could not be realised due to the faulty industrial policy of the State Government. Big ticket projects like Posco and ArcelorMittal had to scrap their projects due to inefficiency of the State Government, the BJP leader said.
In its 2014 election manifesto, the BJD had promised to create an additional irrigation potential of over 10 lakh hectares in five years. Distressed farmers of the State are committing suicides over crop loss. The State Government must tell the people about the additional irrigation potential it has created in the last four years.
While the health and education sectors have crumbled due to large scale vacancy of doctors and teachers respectively, over 40 lakh families are still deprived of power supply. A large number of people in rural areas are forced to drink water from ponds and nullahs as the Government has failed to provide safe drinking water.
The ruling party promised to transform the State but pushed it to backwardness because of corruption, misrule, inefficiency and neglect shown to the farmers and farm sector, he said. Taking a jibe at the BJP leader, BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb advised Acharya to consult senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who were part of the jury which selected Naveen as the Ideal Chief Minister.