BHUBANESWAR: With the Opposition questioning achievements of the BJP government in the last eight months, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday said it was an acknowledgment to the accomplishment of his government within such a short period.
In his reply to the debate on the motion of thanks on Governor’s address, Majhi said he was delighted to hear the comparisons made by Opposition members about the performance of his government in eight months with the 24 years or 290-month-tenure of the previous government.
“This juxtaposition highlights the Opposition’s acknowledgment of our accomplishments within a relatively short period. They want us to show that in eight months, we have achieved more than what was accomplished in the past 24 years by the BJD. I am proud to say that we have indeed made significant progress,” the CM said.
Replying to the accusation of the leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik about BJP betraying the farmers, the chief minister reminded the former about his promise to provide a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal to farmers which he failed to deliver in a decade. “Our government took a significant step in just 24 minutes of our first cabinet meeting, deciding to provide Rs 800 per quintal input assistance to farmers,” he said.
Majhi said the contribution of the previous government to agriculture can be gauged from the fact that farmers’ income in Odisha ranked second to the bottom states, Jharkhand being the the only state below Odisha.
“It is our government which in just 24 minutes of our first cabinet meeting decided to provide annual financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to around one crore women in the state. So far, we’ve already provided the first instalment of the Subhadra scheme to over 98 lakh women,” he said.