The BJD election manifesto, released on Saturday, deserves its place in wastepaper basket in view of the party’s failure to fulfil its promises made during the 2009 elections. This was stated by BJP State spokesperson Sajjan Sharma in a Press release here on Sunday.

The BJP said the new BJD manifesto has now promised to convert all the kuccha houses to pucca houses. A similar promise was made by late Biju Patnaik when he was in the Congress in the 1960s. Now, his son Naveen Patnaik is reiterating the promise, which was never fulfilled. Naveen Patnaik, who has ruled the State for 14 ling years, now realises that large numbers of people are still living in precarious conditions and is again trying to lure voters through false promises.

The BJD has reiterated that it will create employment for youths. It had promised jobs for 15 lakh youths in its 2009 manifesto. On the other hand, during the BJD regime as many as 12 lakh registered jobless youths are running pillar to post in search of employment. What can be a bigger fraud than this, the BJP has asked.

As for other promises, Sharma said it is an irony that the Government has failed to provide drinking water in Ganjam, Patnaik’s home district. The Chief Minister himself heads the Water Resources Department and his party has now promised to provide irrigation in 10 lakh hectares of land in the next five years. It had promised to provide irrigation in at least 35 per cent of the cultivable lands in each block in 2009. Has the Government fulfilled the promiseIJ