Taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Union minister of state for coal Santosh Bagrodia today said that the BJP is not much in the picture in Orissa elections. While the party doesn’t have any hope in the parliamentary elections, it can have 5 to 7 seats in the state. “The BJP is no where in the picture and Congress is going to form the government of its own in Orissa”, Bagrodia said.
Addressing the media, after touring different areas in the state, he said, there is drinking water problem in the rural areas. The state government also failed to control flood and other natural calamities.
Though the Centre provided enough funds to the Orissa government during the last 5 years, it could utilise 55 percent of the funds. Even this amount didn’t reach villages, Bagrodia alleged.
Stating that the primary education is in bad shape in the state, he said, about 82,000 posts of primary teachers are lying vacant. The state government was unable to spend Rs 282 crore provided by the Centre for various educational schemes. While there is no plan of action to provide drinking water, the state government has not yet made any preparation to meet the heat wave.
Severely criticising the Orissa government’s move to provide 6000 acres of land to the Anil Agarwal Foundation for setting up of a world class university at Puri, the Congress leader said, no university in the world require 6000 acres. While thousands of families are being displaced, the government is silent. If the party comes to power, it will review the MoU signed by the state government with Vedanta for the university project. He also criticised the BJD for not supporting the nuclear deal in the parliament, particularly when we don’t have enough coal and nuclear energy is a must for the country.
