Terming the Vikas Yatra of the BJP Government as a criminal conspiracy of conducting election campaign of the BJP with public money, State Congress media department president Shailesh Nitin Trivedi challenged BJP leaders that in spite of wasting public money in political campaigns, they should organise the party’s political programmes, of their own, if they have courage and faith in the capability of their party organisation, as was done by the Congress in its Parivartan Yatra.
He said that frustration and craziness are clearly visible in the BJP. When the Congress has been taking out Parivartan Yatra on the strength of its workers, the BJP Government’s Vikas Yatra was a mere wastage of public money for political gains, he added. Trivedi questioned that when the Vikas Yatra was a Government programme, why its preparations were made at the BJP office and why the party office-bearers are members of the Government’s programme committee. Vikas Yatra was a political programme of the BJP, taken out on Government expenses, he claimed.
Trivedi alleged that because of its non-popularity, as the BJP Government had no confidence that it could gather public in its programmes, by using Government machinery and wasting public money, it has been trying to gather people by distributing paddy bonus to the farmers for one year, tendupatta bonus and saris to women at the programmes.
The Congress demanded from the Raman Government to fulfil its promises and solve problems of the people first, and then take out Vikas Yatra. like the election bonus of paddy distributed just before the Parliament and Assembly elections, it should distribute the paddy bonus of previous years, without any fail, it added. The Congress leader said that the Raman Government, which had declared free electricity for irrigation pumps up to 5 horse power, should return the bill amount recovered from farmers during the last nine years to them. The Government had promised to give jersey cows to the tribal, but it could not even give a calf to them so far, he added.
Nine years ago the chief minister had promised to give unemployment allowance to the educated jobless, but so he could not provide employment or allowance to them, the Congress leader said.