BHUBANESWAR/ ROURKELA/JEYPORE: Targeting the state government over the issue of corruption, the BJP launched its five-day agitation across the state on Tuesday by gheraoing block offices and staging demonstrations before NAC, municipalities and municipal corporations.
State president Manmohan Samal led the agitation of the party’s Cuttack Sadar unit by demonstrating before the Nayabazar block office while MLAs and MPs organised similar protests in their respective districts.
Stating that the list of corruption against the state government is very long, Samal said the chit fund is the biggest scam in the state after the multi-thousand crore mining scam.
While more than 40 lakh investors in the chit fund are waiting for justice, the state government has not been able to refund a single penny to any of them despite creating a corpus of Rs 300 crore following the Orissa High Court order.
He alleged that percentage commission practice is prevalent right from the state capital to the block and panchayat levels. Even beneficiaries of toilets under the Swachh Bharat scheme are not spared. Their hard-earned money is being misappropriated.
“The Centre has given Rs 18.83 lakh crore to the state government over the last nine years but the state government is on a looting spree. At least Rs 1 lakh crore is embezzled every year out of all government schemes by a nexus of officers, contractors and businessmen,” Samal alleged.
The state government did not even spare Lord Jagannath, the symbol of Odia culture, by deliberately misplacing the keys of Ratna Bhandar to avoid the reinventorisation of the treasure of the presiding deities of Puri Srimandir. Even as the BJP has planned the block gherao programme till November 18, the party will continue its fight against corruption and other issues till the removal of this government, he added.
On the day, the Sundargarh unit of BJP said it would stage a demonstration in all 17 block headquarters, three municipality areas and Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) limits in the district. Similarly, the party will organise protests in all urban and rural areas of Koraput district.