The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday held a protest march at Balugaon in Khordha alleging the Odisha government of hijacking the PDS rice sent by the Centre to get undue political benefit.
As per reports, the logos of 5T and Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha were found printed on bags in which the PDS rice is being distributed to beneficiaries.
To press their point, BJP members took out a protest march at Balugaon and burnt bags with those logos in front of a PDS dealer point at the NAC.
The saffron party alleged that the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)-led Odisha government is doing politics over Centre-provided PDS rice.
Speaking about their protest, BJP’s Prithviraj Harichandan said, “This hijacking should be stopped right now. We have burnt those bags provided by the State government with their logos as a symbolic protest.”
“If the government does not refrain from doing this then they will face people’s wrath. BJP will start picketing in front of those PDS dealer points and lock them. If the State government wants to sell their logos then they should do so with the rice distributed through the State Food Security scheme. But they should not do so with the rice provided by the Centre under the National Food Security Act,” Harichandan added.
It is pertinent to mention here that the BJP has been attacking the BJD-led Odisha government, claiming that the state government has been hijacking the schemes of the Central government by printing its own photographs on advertisements in a bid to take credit.
No comments were received from the ruling BJD sources.
Recently, tension prevailed at Tanaga panchayat under Mayurbhanj’s Jamda block after a Jogan Sahayak (Supply Assistant) was seen distributing PDS rice under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s poster.
The villagers reportedly protested the act and asked the Supply Assistant to remove the posters, which he obliged after apologising to them.