Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan seeks Congress apology

BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday said the  Congress owes on apology to the people of Odisha for its negligible contribution to the State’s development.

Reacting sharply to the Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik’s demand for an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly siding with Chhattisgarh Government on the Mahanadi water dispute, Pradhan said the Congress posers to the PM before his Cuttack visit sound familiar as the BJD has put similar questions earlier.

Since Independence, the Congress was in power both at the Centre and in the State for most of the time. As per the Raghuram Rajan Commitee report, Odisha was one of the least developed States when Congress led UPA Government was at the Centre for 10 en years. The Congress should apologise for the backwardness of the State, he said.

Pradhan further alleged that all the clearances for Chhattisgarh projects on river Mahanadi and Polavaram project by Andhra Pradesh Government was given by the UPA Government. The Congress has no moral right to seek apology from the PM for the problems it had created for the State.