The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) on Wednesday observed Mahatma Gandhi and lal Bahadur Shastri Jayanti here. While the ruling BJD has launched statewide padayatra coinciding with the Gandhi Jayanti, the Congress too has planned to embark on a padayatra this month to reach out to the people.
The aim of Congress programme is to make people aware of the success of UPA Government at the Centre and failure of the BJD Government in the State during the past 13 years and also inform the people about the Central assistances to Odisha. PCC president Jayadev Jena with other senior leaders garlanded the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Park at Chandrasekhar early in the morning. Jena informed, “The party will launch a 33-day statewide padayatra, which will begin from laxmananath of Mayurbhanj to culminate at Girisola covering a distance of 500 km.”
He added, “The party men will tell the people during the journey how the Naveen Patnaik Government has failed to utilise the Central grants properly for various development purposes including tackling poverty in the State.” Replying to a question on suspension of party leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the PCC chief said it was the decision of the party high command and he had nothing to do with it. He, however, underscored the need for discipline in the party and said everybody in the party has to work within the party guideline. Among others, senior party leader Giridhari Gamang, Sarat Pattnaik, Bhupinder Singh and Sivanada Ray were present.