Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader Pranab Prakash Das has blamed the central government for the “death of more than 400 people in 200 accidents” in the last ten years due to the “precarious” condition of the National Highway 55 connecting Sambalpur with Cuttack in Odisha.
Das, in a post on X, sought to know from Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as to “who is responsible for the loss of so many lives in the road accidents”.
He also said work on the NH stretch could not be completed even though Pradhan, the BJP leader from the state, has been a minister at the Centre for the last ten years.
“It was the failure of the union minister and the central government for not completing the road project. How the BJP leader will face the people of Sambalpur. Voters will give him a befitting reply in the elections,” Das said.
The BJD leader is pitted against Pradhan in the Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency.
Replying to Das, BJP MLA Nauri Nayak from Rengali under the Sambalpur parliamentary constituency said, “The BJD has failed to make drinking water available to all in Odisha even though its government has been ruling the state for 25 years. The people are deprived of basic facilities, including health”.
Pictures of patients being taken to hospital on cots is a regular phenomenon in Sambalpur district, Nayak claimed.
The BJP legislator also blamed the state government for the death of people due to diarrhoea and the spread of jaundice due to consumption of contaminated water in several parts of Odisha.
“People know what our leader Dharmendra Pradhan has done for Sambalpur. From 1992 to today, he has had a relationship with Sambalpur from his student life,” Nayak added.
PTI