Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranajan Patnaik on Tuesday urged people of the State to elect deserving candidates in the panchayat elections so that they can be change agents.
Patnaik said people across the State have felt the need of change, which is inevitable.
“If we unknowingly decide to allow corruption, money, muscle power, violence and atrocities to flourish, it would happen and democracy would take a beating. In this context, you yourself can be a change agent,” he said.
Taking a potshot at both Central and State Governments, he said even after 75 years of independence, violence, hatred, corruption and atrocities against women have increased. Nation builders like Gandhi, Nehru and Patel had never thought of India to be what it is today. Those who are at the helm of affairs give different narratives to democracy and administration."
“We have got a Prime Minister who always speaks untruth and uses media to validate it,” Patnaik said.
Similarly, during the last 22 years of the BJD rule, people only got false assurance after assurance and were deceived.
“If Naveenbabu’s Government is clean, why almost daily we are finding Vigilance cases against Government employees involving crores of rupees? Imagine how much wealth Ministers, MLAs, other ruling party leaders and high-ranking officers must have amassed,” he posed.