Taking strong exception to the statement of senior BJD leader and Finance Minister Prasanna Acharya that the release of funds for development work would depend on who the people of an area vote for, the BJP has asked him to bear in mind that the State treasury is not his paternal property.
“The statement of the Finance Minister bears ample testimony to the blatant misuse of public money and power by the ruling BJD. let Acharya wait till the Assembly elections next year. Neither he would remain the Finance Minister nor would he have the State treasury with him as the BJD would sink to the rock bottom along with its supremo Naveen Patnaik,” BJP State spokesperson Suresh Pujari told reporters here on Thursday.
Citing instances of the BJD’s modus operandi, Pujari said thousands of sarees that the Government had bought for distribution among women in the cyclone and flood-hit areas in the other regions were used as party sops in the western Odisha Urban local Body (UOlB) polls. This apart, the BJD has spent huge amounts of money to woo the western Odisha voters into its fold and distributed thousands of colour television sets.
The volume of sale of these TV sets can be known if one verifies the company sales records in October, he asserted. “You will not find a single BJD MlA or Minister in Bhubaneswar as they are now camping in Western Odisha to wrest power by hook or crook, he said.