Indus Valley Times

By C.B.Singh

Rayagada/Bhawanipatna (Odisha), May 8:  Senior BJP leader and defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday launched a broadside on Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) by calling them out as ‘Bhrast’ (corrupt)”  and urged people to give his a party a chance to change the fate of the state.

Addressing separate poll rallies at Bhawanipatna under the Kalahandi parliamentary constituency (PC) and Rayagada under Koraput, Rajnath Singh said Odisha continued to suffer from backwardness due to the misgovernance of the BJD and the Congress for decades.

“A lot of development work has taken place in the country under 10 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. Once the BJP government is formed in Odisha, rapid developments will take place across the state with special focus on Kalahandi which is considered as one of the backward places in the country,” said Rajnath.

Earlier, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) used to come to Kalahandi as part of their “poverty tourism” and write articles about its poverty. The Congress was in power here for long. Be it Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or Manmohan Singh, all of them only claimed to eradicate poverty. Unfortunately, they could not live up to their words. However, after PM Narendra Modi came to power, the Centre has been able to uplift over 25 crore people from poverty, said Singh.

“The Centre has launched the Ayushman Bharat scheme under which Rs 5 lakh assistance for medical expenses is being provided to the poor. However, the BJD government has deprived the Odisha people of the benefits of the scheme. Once the BJP forms government in Odisha, the party will implement the scheme here along with other schemes,” he said.

Stating that the Congress and BJD leaders had made a lot of toll promises in the past, the Union minister said Odisha would have been a state had they fulfilled their commitments even partially.