BHUBANESWAR: Even as BJP on Sunday released its poll manifesto for Odisha, BJD claimed people of the state still believe in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as the saffron party has a record of not fulfilling its promises.
5T chairman and BJD leader VK Pandian said the BJP had released manifestoes in 2014 and 2019 too but people did not believe in the saffron party and reposed their faith in the chief minister because he walks the talk.
Referring to BJP’s promise of doubling the minimum support price (MSP) on paddy in the 2014 manifesto, Pandian said everybody is waiting for the last 10 years for them to implement it. On the BJP’s promise to increase MSP to Rs 3,000 per quintal, Pandian asked what was the Centre doing for the last 10 years.
Pandian said the BJP in 2014 had promised to create two crore jobs every year. “In 10 years, 20 crore jobs would have been created and Odisha’s share would have been 80 lakh jobs. A member of every alternate family in the state would have got a job if the BJP had fulfilled its promise. This is the kind of gap in the promises made by them and what they delivered,” he said.
Pandian said BJP also talked of constructing 25,000 km of roads in Odisha, but even the alignment of the coastal highway promised by it is yet to finalised. “Everybody has also forgotten about the capital city ring road”, he said adding in a span of only three years the Odisha government has completed 300 km of Biju Expressway which connects northern Odisha with south while crossing western parts of the state.
The BJP has promised to increase allowance to vulnerable sections of people to Rs 3,000 per month from Rs 300 per month, he said.
Adding the state government is giving an allowance of Rs 1,000 per month to such people. “Leaders of the BJP who are talking of a double-engine government are promising to increase allowances. Why could they not implement it six months before elections,” he asked.
Stating that BJP leaders talk about farmers, women, fishermen and other vulnerable sections of people only when elections are around, Pandian said people easily see through this. But the chief minister always thinks about vulnerable sections of society and works for their welfare, he said, adding, “This is Naveen engine guarantee.”
