As many as 20 lakh people have migrated to Kerala and 15 lakh to my Karnataka State in search of their livelihood from Odisha, especially from Naveen Patnaik’s native Ganjam district, which shows how the present State Government led by Patnaik provides employment opportunity to the people of Odisha!”
“Patnaik has failed to provide job opportunities and is betraying the people using a parroted slogan of “Negligence of Central Government towards Odisha,” said AICC general secretary in-charge of the State BK Hariprasad here on Sunday.
He was addressing a farmers’ rally organised by the Koraput District Congress Committee where over 15,000 people from all corners of the district congregated.
Karnataka has plenty of engineering and medical colleges even in all districts, but Odisha lags behind in the education sector, for which students from Odisha leave for Karnataka for their higher studies, and after completion of their studies they are getting jobs at the international level. “I saw not a single Government college existing in the tribals-dominated and Maoist-prone Malkangiri district which astonished me,” Hariprasad said, expressing concern over the apathy of the BJD Government towards the people of Malkangiri.
While recalling the speech of Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Odisha, Hariprasad said Odisha is full of minerals and other natural wealth, but the people are poor due to negligence of the Naveen Patnaik Government, which has ruined the State during the last 14 years of his rule.
Hariprasad sought to make the gathering aware about the myriad development programmes of the Congress-led UPA Government under the banner of Bharat Nirman.
Hari Prasad indicated that Giridhar Gomang is the party candidate for the Koraput Parliamentary constituency and former MlA Tara Prasad Bahinipati the candidate for the Jeypore Assembly constituency in the ensuing general elections.
Pradesh Congress Committee president Jayadev Jena assured the farmers to provide them a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal of paddy when his party comes to power while the BJD Government declared a bonus of only Rs 100 which the State Government has even failed to provide. He also promised that if the Congress is back in power, farmers would be freed from their loan burden.
Jena also referred to the Shah Commission report, which has pointed out misappropriation of Rs 60,000 crore in the mining scam for which the BJD Government would soon face a CBI inquiry.
Former Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang attending the Samabesh sought excuse for committing mistakes in the last General Elections and said former Koraput MlA Tara Prasad Bahinipati would look after the organisational matters in the district. He alleged about corruption in the district at the behest of local MlA and Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda.
Tara Prasad Bahinipati also accused Minister Nanda of corrupt practices in the area and appealed to the gathering to vote for the Congress. DCC chief Minakshi Bahinipati delivered a vote of thanks. Among others, Pottangi MlA Rama Chandra Kaddam, Dabugaon MlA Bhujabal Majhi, former MlA Nimai Sarkar, AICC secretary Subhankar Sarkar and aspiring Assembly ticket candidates were present.