Attending an extended executive committee meeting of the BJD here on Thursday as observer, Agricultural Minister Damodar Rout came down heavily on the BJP with allegations that the party is using funds from the Central Government undertakings (PSUs) for propaganda against the BJD.
On the other hand, the Central Government, while collecting revenues from the mines operating in Odisha, is adopting delaying tactics to repay the State its share, he said.
Rout said that in the early 1960s the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, feeling the necessities of Odisha, had shifted a proposed dam Project from Madhya Pradesh to Hirakud of Odisha. But present Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given Andhra Pradesh’s Pollavaram project national status knowing well that a case has been filed by the Odisha Government in the Supreme Court.
Rout appealed to BJD workers to reach all booths and apprise the people regarding all the plans and projects executed by the Naveen Patnaik Government.
Mines and Energy Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick, Commerce and Transport Minister Dr Nrusingha Charan Sahu, Dhenkanal MP Tathagata Satpathy, Dhenkanal MlA and District Planning Committee Chairman Saroj Kumar Samal, State Cooperative Bank Chairman Akhaya Kumar Mohanty, DRIT Chairman Devi Prasad Bhutia, Seed Corporation Chairman Jogendra Tripathy, Hindol MlA Simarani Naik and former Dhenkanal MlA Sudhir Kumar Samal blamed the NDA Government at the Centre for neglecting Odisha in each and every respect violating the sanctity of the Federal structure.