Congress candidate for the Rourkela Assembly constituency and former MlA Pravat Mohapatra on Monday said that the claim of the BJD for development of the steel city during the last 14 years has no merit.
Rather, BJD MlA Sarada Nayak has been involved in a series of corruptions causing damage to the city, he said.Referring to BJP candidate Dilip Ray, Mohapatra said that though the latter was a Union Minister under three respective Prime Ministers and Industries Minister in the State, he did nothing for the city. Rather, during his regime the Rourkela Municipality and Rourkela Development Authority suffered losses of Rs 14 crore and Rs 4 crore, respectively, he said.
Mohapatra asserted that during his five years as the MlA the Rourkela Government Hospital was upgraded to a district-level facility, the RTO office was upgraded to RTA, a tehsil office was opened at Rourkela, 40,000 BPl cards and 1,03,000 APl cards were distributed and the proposal for establishment of the BPUT at Rourkela was recommended by Standing Committee.
So, only the Congress Government has ensured major developments for the city, he added, saying he is confident of his victory this time.