Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday called upon the State Government to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel as the Union Government has now slashed the price by Rs 2.50 a litre.
Addressing a Press meet here, Pradhan reacted to Chief Minister Naveen Patnak’s recent comment that the BJP-led Union Government is like “an empty vessel that sounds much” and remarked that said the BJD is no better than a “broken vessel”.
“As many 3.26 crore people in Odisha have been benefitted by the National Food Security Act where as the State Government has announced to involve only 25 lakh people in its own food security scheme. With this announcement, the BJD Government has made it clear that the Rs 1-a-kg rice was of the Modi Government,” said Pradhan.
He informed that while the Modi Government is spending Rs 5,760 crore per year for the NFSA beneficiaries, the Naveen Government would spend a merely Rs 612 crore per year.
He dared the State Government make public the list of beneficiaries under the State’s own food security programme as the number declared by the State Government has changed from 34 lakh to 25 lakh.