Union Minister of State for Rural Development Ram Kripal Yadav has dared Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to opt for an early election while alleging that his Government is misusing Central funds coming under different schemes.
Addressing a Press conference, Yadav said the BJP is ready to face Patnaik if he calls for an Assembly election now.
“State Government has failed in providing basic needs of the people in the last 17 years for which condition of poor people have not improved. There are still hundreds of villages in the State deprived of electricity, drinking water, toilets, roads and other basic amenities,” Yadav told reporters after his two-day visit to Ganjam, Kandhamal and Boudh districts.
Yadav visited the three districts as part of the BJP’s ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ programme on three years’ completion of the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre. “The Cetnre has provided Rs 35,000 crore under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Rs 64,000 crore under MGNREGS, Rs 1,842 crore for widow pension schme, Rs 4,200 crore under Shyama Prasad Rurban Mission and many thousands of crores of rupees under other schemes during the last three years. However, people have been deprived of getting benefits,” he said.
He said several tribal people in Kandhamal told him that they are being asked to put up ‘Biju Awas’ signboards to get house under PMAY.
“They broke down while narrating their plights before me,” Yadav said adding that it has come to his notice that the State government has been appropriating the schemes of the Central Government as its own.
He said though the Centre has provided funds for construction of 15,000 kilometres of roads under the PMGSY, but funds have not been utitlised properly.
He lamented that no officers of Rural Development Department attended his review meeting at the concerned district headquarters.