BHUBANESWAR : The BJD on Monday alleged that the US travel advisory cautioning its citizens over visiting Odisha reflects the growing crime against women and general deterioration in law and order in the state, and announced to launch agitation over the issue in the first week of July.
Addressing a media conference here, senior leaders Arun Sahoo, Sanjay Das Burma and Tukuni Sahu said the advisory has tarnished the image of Odisha in the entire world only because of the failure of the BJP government on all these fronts.
As the state government has remained insensitive to the growing crime against women, the Biju Mahila Janata Dal will hit the streets over the issue, they said.
The Biju Yuva Janata Dal and Biju Chhatra Janata Dal have also announced statewide agitation on June 25 to protest the alarming rise in rape, murder, harassment of women and other crimes in the state. Party MLAs Byomakesh Ray and Devi Ranjan Tripathy said demonstrations will be held all over the state. Besides, students will boycott classes, wear black badges and organise picketing in all the colleges of the state.
The BJD leaders said the BJP government recently celebrated its first anniversary in power with great fanfare having Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance. As the US travel advisory has exposed the government’s failure, the PM should take the matter into consideration and issue a statement.
The BJD leaders also referred to the speech of Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati at the Raj Bhavan here where he stated that implementation of schemes have failed because of lack of awareness of people and government officials.
The BJD leaders stated that the party will not remain silent over these issues.