BHUBANESWAR: The BJP today criticised the state government for the preventive arrest of BJP
workers ahead of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's visit to Sundargarh district.
"The Chief Minister's visit to different parts of the state amidst heavy poice bandobast demonstrates that he is scared to face the people. Areas where he is visiting is virtually kept under a state of emergency and arrest of political opponents ahead of his visit has become a standard procedure," national BJP general secretary and Odisha in-charge Arun Singh told reporters here.
Condemning the arrest of BJP workers including secretary of the party's state unit Dhiren Senapati and state Yuva Morcha president Tankadhar Tripathy last night, Singh said such arrest will not deter the BJP activists to fight against the corrupt and incompetent BJD government.
Asserting that the BJP is in all readiness to face any challenge from the ruling BJD, Singh said his party has decided to organise panchayat level meeting for nearly two weeks from December 26 to January
7, 2017 to highlights the failures of the state government and the success of the Narendra Modi government at Centre.
Singh was here to attend a joint meeting of BJP MLAs, state functionaries, district presidents, presidents of party frontal wings and district pravaris to finalise strategy for the ensuing panchayat elections.
The meeting presided by state unit president Basanta Panda slammed the Chief Minister for obstructing the free flow of funds from Centre to the panchayats for political reasons.
Coming down heavily on the state government for the poor health services in rural areas, Panda said the Nagada malnutrition deaths and the deaths of over 100 children in Malkangiri district due to Japanese Encephalitis are results of utter mismanagement and inefficiency of the ruling BJD.
Panda said that the Chief Minister is trying to fool the people by laying foundation stones of innumerable projects ahead of the panchayat election. But such gimmicks will not work any more as people are aware that a large number of projects whose foundations stones were laid by him a decade ago have remained non-starter.