Senior Congress leader Sarat Rout on Wednesday said the Naveen Patnaik Government has failed on all fronts and put the State on backward tracks during its 17 years of rule.
“The BJD Government has failed to resolve basic problems of the people. Scams and corruptions have forced people feeling that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has betrayed them,” Rout told a Press conference here.
Rout lamented saying that only two per cent of the population have access to safe drinking water now.
“Though the BJD had promised in its 2014 election manifesto to supply drinking water to all villages, yet 98 per cent houses in rural areas are to get pipe water. Around 18 per cent of people are still forced to drink contaminated water from ponds, nullahs and canals,” alleged Rout.
Quoting the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report, he said 152 of the State's 314 blocks are yet to have 35 per cent irrigation facilities and 95 of 105 urban local bodies are not getting 135 litres drinking water per person per day.
He said, as per the State Water Policy 2007, the Government should provide adequate safe drinking water for people and livestock both in urban and rural areas from multi-purpose water projects on a priority basis.
He said time has come for people to seek an explanation from the Government as to why it made tall promises before the 2014 election and buried them all.