Union Minister Srikant Jena and PCC president Jayadev Jena on Saturday once again challenged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to sit at a public place with them to discuss developmental issues taken up by his Government and the assistances given to the State by the Congress-led UPA Government.
In a letter to the CM, both put forth three issues, mining scam, Central assistance to the State and chit fund scam, for an open discussion. “In context of the upcoming lok Sabha and State Assembly elections next month, we would like to discuss these three major issues transparently in any public place in larger public interest,” the letter said quoting the two Congress leaders.
They alleged that iron ore worth at least Rs 60,000 crore and chromite worth Rs 1 lakh crore have been looted right under Patnaik’s watch. Stating that 60 families have looted the State while 60 lakh families out of 85 lakh families live below the poverty line, they said, “Your administration has made Odisha the poorest State. After this, any individual with any political morals wouldn’t even ask for a new term in office.”
Raising the Central assistance issues, they said, “You have been in power for 14 years and also part of NDA regime at the Centre, while UPA has been in power for 10 years. let’s discuss their respective contribution towards development of Odisha, and who has been slyly claiming credit and shamelessly siphoning off money to 60 families who have looted the State.”
They informed that the UPA Government has provided 7 new medical colleges, the AIIMS and the 108 Ambulance Services in the health sector while in education Sector it has provided IIT and National Institute of Science Education & Research (NISER) at Bhubaneswar, Central University in Koraput and Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) at Balasore.
Similarly, the UPA has given Paradip PCPIR Petrochemical Complex with investment of Rs 2.7 lakh crore, Indian Oil Refinery at Paradip with investment of Rs 50,000 crore, revival of Talcher Fertiliser Plant (which NDA Government had shut down) with investment of Rs 8000 crores and a Software Technology Park in Balasore.
They blamed the Chief Minister for branding Rs 1-a-kg-rice Scheme as his Government’s. “The Central Government provides 90 per cent of the funds for this while you have been shamelessly branding this scheme as yours,” they said. Raising chit fund scam issues, they said while 23 lakh families of the State have been looted of their valuable hard-earned savings by chit-fund companies, Patnaik has personally become the brand ambassador for Chit-Fund operators in the State.
They informed the Chief Minister that they along with three other senior Congress leaders would come to his residence Naveen Nivas on March 10 to finalise the date for the discussion. “We would, therefore, request you to grant us the courtesy of an appointment to meet you, they said.