Odisha Jan Morcha president and Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra has questioned the basis on which the State Cabinet approved of creation of 500 new gram panchayats.
He said on Saturday that in the 2014 general elections, the OJM had announced to make each village a panchayat in its manifesto. Soon, the BJD announced to make each village having a population of 1,000 as a panchayat. Mohapatra said that the new 500 panchayats don’t fulfill the BJD’s poll promise and demanded the Chief Minister to apologise to the people of Odisha for not being able to keep his words.