BHUBANESWAR: Irked over BJD harping on the Centre’s neglect of the State, the Congress on Thursday dared the Naveen Patnaik Government to bring out a white paper on Central assistance to the State during the tenure of NDA and the UPA governments.The BJD Government is trying to politicise all issues to cover up its failure on all fronts, said Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh. Neck-deep in corruption, the Naveen Patnaik Government is trying to deflect attention away from the real issues by blaming the Centre, he said and sought to know as to why the Government has failed to arrest the killers of its party MLA Jagabandhu Majhi.The Government was so scared to discuss the law and order that it did not allow an adjournment motion during the monsoon session of the Assembly, he said.While the farmers of the State have been hit by successive natural calamities, the Government has provided them little or no succour. If the Government claims to be so efficient why farmers who suffered crop loss due to untimely rain in December 2010 are yet to get compensation, he wondered.To a query on the alleged self-motherly attitude of Centre on its demand for the special category status to Odisha, Singh said the Government never took the Opposition into confidence on important issues. They have been trying to derive political mileage by blaming the Centre.Corroborating Singh, Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan said his party was ready to take up the cause for special category status and the Central assistance provided the Government puts the records straight.Harichandan said the Chief Minister cannot blame the Centre with regard to the assistance with less than 50 per cent of funds provided under flagship programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, National Rural Health Mission and Sarva Sikshya Abhijan, being utilised. The Government had surrendered Rs 1,700 crore to the Centre provided under the SSA, he added.Alleging that the Government had taken no concrete measures to stop illegal mining, the former minister said operation of four mines was stalled just before the visit of Justice MB Shah Commission.
Comments
0 comment