Rourkela/Bhawanipatna: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday accused the Naveen Patnaik government of being “remote-controlled” from Delhi.
Addressing a Congress rally in this steel city, he said Odisha was hit by chit fund scam, in which many Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders were involved, while the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre was stung by the Rafale scandal.
The Odisha government was “remote-controlled” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it had extended its support to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on measures like demonetisation, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and different issues in Parliament, whenever the PM desired, Gandhi said.
Stating that the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which has a facility in Odisha, had suffered due to the Rafale fighter jets deal, he said the Modi government had deprived Odisha youth of a large number of jobs through it.
“Had the HAL got the opportunity to manufacture the fighter aircraft, a large number of people, including engineers and technicians, would have got jobs,” the Congress chief said.
Hitting out at Modi, he said the prime minister had promised to bring back black money stashed abroad and give Rs 15 lakh to all Indians, but the assurance had remained a hollow one.
The BJP had also failed to honour its promise of generating two crore jobs every year, Gandhi added.
Addressing a rally at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district Gandhi had a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik accusing them of neglecting the poor and the tribals.
Modi, he said had waived loan to the tune of Rs 3.5 lakh core to his fifteen industrial friends and announced only Rs 17 per day for the farmers which the BJP was saying a historic decision.
“I cannot promise Rs 15 lakh to the bank account of each individual in the country but I can assure that the Congress will provide minimum income to each and every poor of the country and the amount will be directly credited to their bank account.”
The Congress president said Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh had given special attention to Kalahandi and the KBK region.
“You need special attention and special assistance because of backwardness and your district cannot be compared with other districts of the state. However, the Naveen Patnaik government and the Modi government have ignored you and snatched your “land, water and forest.” Both of them did not give due attention to the people of the region, he said.
The Congress President also promised that if voted to power in Odisha the Congress will give Rs 2600 as MSP for paddy to the farmers.
“We have done it in Chhattisgarh where the farmer is being paid Rs 2500 for selling paddy and we will implement Rs 2600 for selling paddy in Odisha,” he said.