A controversy has erupted over the venue of the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s programme in the city while opposition Congress described it as violation rules for a political meeting.
The CM is scheduled to attend a youth convention of the region in the Veer Surendra Sai stadium here on February 1. Patnaik will address a gathering of over 30,000 youths inside the stadium. He will also lay the foundation stones of various projects and inaugurate several completed projects of the district from the venue. The district administration is organising it.
Meanwhile, District Congress Committee (DCC) president Aswini Guru in a statement strongly criticized the ruling BJD for using the stadium for political meeting. The District Athletic Association (DAA) is an independent body and the district administration neither informed nor had taken its permission before organising the show. The administration has totally damaged the stadium ground by fitting pillars for shed and security cover, Guru said.
Massive preparations are on for the CM’s programme on that day. Patnaik will arrive in Jamadar pali airstrip at around 12.30 pm and take a helicopter to the venue. Along with the CM, several Ministers, MPs, MLAs and party leaders from different districts will attend the convention.
During the one- hour stay, Patnaik will lay the foundation stones for a nurses hostel at Burla , a students’ hostel of VIMSAR, a drug research centre at Sambalpur, the Bhutapada- Dhankauda road, a bridge over Dhobijor between Nari Seva Sadan and Jail chowk, a road over bridge near Hirakud, while he will inaugurate a rope way connected between Jawahar garden and Gandhi Minar in Hirakud dam, an administrative building of Sambalpur District Headquarters Hospital and 300-bed hostel of Gangadhar Meher Junior College, the official sources said.