Opposition slams Odisha govt over foreign trip of BJD leaders during train tragedy

The entire country and the world were in a state of shock after the news of a tragic train mishap at Bahanaga in Balasore came on June 2nd (Friday) evening. As many as 288 persons lost their lives in one of the worst and deadliest train mishaps in the country.

What has emerged as even more shocking is the foreign tour by ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) minister, leaders, and others the next day. This has now provided fodder to the Opposition parties who have come down heavily on the state government over BJD leaders’ foreign tour to attend Odisha Dibasa celebrations in Singapore.  One minister, 8 MLAs, and 3 Mayors were part of the BJD delegation.

At a time when an emergency situation had cropped up on Friday following the Bahanaga train mishap, the BJD leaders were getting ready to leave for Singapore for the Utkal Dibasa celebrations.

The team included Rohit Pujari, who was dropped from the council of ministers today, MLA Dibya Shankar Mishra, Ashok Bal, Sambit Routray, Akash Dasnayak, Bishnubrat Routray, Dhruba Sahoo, and Prasant Behera. The team also included- Bhubaneswar Mayor, Sulochana Das, Cuttack Mayor, Subhas Singh, and Berhampur Mayor, Sanghamitra Dalei.

Even the MLA of Soro under Balasore, Parshuram Dhadan was also part of the BJD delegation that visited Singapore. As per sources, when most of the Soro residents were on their toes and trying to help the Coromandel express victims, the MLA was in a celebration mood. Such a trip by the leaders has been criticised by the Opposition.

“The state ministers and the concerned local MLA lost their senses and went on a pleasure trip to Singapore, Thailand in such a time of emergency. It is really unfortunate,” said state BJP general secretary, Prithviraj Harichandan.

Congress leader, Jayadev Jena said, “Singapore visit could be an official schedule or some meeting. But after seeing such a big incident, the decision of the leaders and the local MLA to go ahead with the tour instead of reviewing things is unfortunate.

However, the Soro MLA said, “It was a national disaster and everybody from CM to others and BJD workers were actively involved in rescue and necessary operations. Even though I was on official tour, I was monitoring things.”

Meanwhile, questions are now being raised on the BJD MLAs and Minister's visit for the Odisha Dibasa programme in Singapore when already it was known by Friday evening that thousands of passengers have been injured in the tragic train mishap. It is pertinent to mention here that the government had announced no celebration after the Coromandel Express mishap.

But why was the Odisha Dibasa programme in Singapore not called off?

Cuttack Mayor, Subhas Singh, who claimed to have supervised the entire functioning at SCB on June 7, refused to comment on his absence following the mishap.