Almost all the frontline political parties in the State like the BJD, the Congress and the BJP here on Thursday unanimously agreed that they do not have any comprehensive party policy for betterment and development of urban poor.
“As per the report of the Planning Commission of India cities contributes about 63 per cent of country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but the plights of a large section of population in cities termed as ‘urban poor’ is a dismal reality.
Those poor are informal urban workforce like domestic help, vendors and hawkers, construction workers, rag-pickers, rickshaw pullers,” said Mahedndra Parida of the CPI(Ml) while participating in a State-level consultation on economic contribution of urban poor organised by the National Institute for Development Innovation (NIDI).
BJD Kamakshyanagar MlA Prafulla Mallick too stated that every political party must give importance on the issues of urban poor in their election manifestos in order to streamline their living.
Participants in the consultation urged the representatives of all the parties to include their issues in their manifestos.
Among others, Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board chairperson Jogendra Tripathy, Sibasankar Swain of the Aam Aadmi Party, Chinmay Sahoo of the Congress, Surebdra lath of the BJP and Ranjan Rout of the NIDI participated in the discussion.