BHUBANESWAR: As the BJD is making elaborate arrangements to celebrate its silver jubilee on December 26, the BJP on Saturday announced to observe satyagraha that day to protest the rising atrocities against women and criminalisation of politics.
Announcing this at a media conference here, state BJP president Samir Mohanty said Odisha is among the top five states where crime against women is highest in the country. Never before the state has such a poor track record as it is today and what is disconcerting is that ministers and senior leaders of the ruling BJD are involved in majority cases.
Citing four murder cases in which three former ministers and a sitting minister are involved, Mohanty said instead of taking action against them the state government has successfully used the law enforcing authorities to destroy evidences to prove their innocence.
“Odisha is a peace loving state. BJP strongly condemns increasing criminalisation of politics and crime against women. As a mark of protest the party has decided to observe four-hour satyagraha in each of the 1,004 zilla parishad zones on Monday,” Mohanty said.
Addressing the media separately, general secretary of national BJP Mahila Morcha Deepti Rawat Bhardwaj came down heavily on the state government for the rising violence against women and its failure to utilise the central assistance given under Nirbhaya fund aimed at improving the security and safety of women.
She said the state has utilised only Rs 45 crore out of Rs 75 crore of the Nirbhaya fund in 2021 while the expenditure in 2022 is Rs 19 crore out of Rs 26 crore.The BJP leader from Uttarakhand criticised the state government for implementing all the welfare schemes of Centre for women on party lines and doing vote bank politics through self help groups.