BJP and BJD members exchanged heated words over funding of Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas in the State Assembly on Thursday.
While Leader of Opposition (LoP) Pradipta Naik alleged that the State Government is establishing and running Adarsha Vidyalayas with the interest money earned from Central funds, BJD members Pradeep Amat, Amar Prasad Satpathy and Bhupinder Singh demanded factual figures from Naik.
“The State Government has disengaged MCS Coordinators appointed by the Centre. While the Union Government had paid Rs 43 crore, the State Government has neither utilised it nor returned it to the Centre. The State Government is earning interest from the fund and running Adarsha Vidyalayas,” said Naik.
Raising a Point of Order, Amat said, “Adarsha Vidyalayas had been proposed during the UPA Government. However, when the BJP-led NDA Government came to the power in 2014, the then Union Finance Minister stopped the projects despite repeated requests from Odisha and other States. Then, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik resolved to establish such a school in each of 314 blocks. As of now, 190 schools are operating in Odisha for which the Union Government has not give a single penny,” said Amat, also a former Finance Minister.
Subsequently, Satpathy and Singh said the post of Leader of Opposition is very important in the House. Thus, Naik should not make untrue claims and he should substantiate his claims with factual figures. They demanded that the Speaker ask him to furnish factual figures against his claim. As they kept demanding it, Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro suggested Naik to give a clarification on a later date.
Earlier, Naik had also alleged that the State Government has failed in providing jobs to youths during the last 20 years. “While 22,57,000 boys and girls have registered their names with different Employment Exchanges, the Government has given jobs to 26,350 only. Corporate houses are also not giving jobs to youths as per agreements made with the Government,” he alleged.