BHUBANESWAR:The BJD has planned a massive public meeting at Jagatsinghpur on Friday to mark the culmination of the Sachetanata Yatra which had started from Jharsuguda and Bargarh districts on May 16.
The public meeting will be a show of strength of the BJD ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Cuttack to address a public meeting at the Baliyatra ground on the Mahanadi river bed. Modi will place four year’s report card of his Government before the people at the public meeting. Besides, party leaders will seek the report card of four year completion of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Odisha. The BJD Government completed four years of the fourth consecutive term in office on May 21.
Congress and BJP have stepped up criticism of the Centre ahead of the Prime Minister visit to Odisha over the Mahanadi issue even as there is hectic preparations in the BJP camp to make it a grand success.
Describing Prime Minister’s sixth visit as a show of power, Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathi said he should clarify his stand on Mahanadi dispute and spell out what assistance he can provide.
Senior leader and former minister Damodar Rout also criticised the Prime Minister for extending tacit support to Chhattisgarh Government’s construction activities on the upstream of Mahanadi river which is ‘unconstitutional’. “Addressing a public meeting on Mahanadi river bed when BJD has launched statewide agitation on the river issue is a reflection of arrogance,” he said and added that every one had expected that the Prime Minister will do something to resolve the dispute.
Stating that Modi should not remain confined to a State or a party as he is of the entire country, Rout maintained that BJP will never be able to come to power in Odisha.Meanwhile, president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik has asked six questions to the Prime Minister on the Mahanadi issue ahead of the visit.