A day after a group of Congress members scuffled with Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) Mayor and Commissioner during the laying of foundation stone for the renovation work of Petanala drain in CDA, senior BJD leader Debasish Samantaray on Sunday took a jibe at Mayor Subhash Singh.
The senior BJD leader and ex-MLA from Barabati-Cuttack raised questions on Mayor’s move to break coconut at the project site when already Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone long back.
“Once the foundation stone for a project is laid by CM, there is no justification in breaking coconut at the site in the absence of concerned department’s officials and others. Mayor can go for inspection and only he can say whether it was government or Mayor’s private function,” said Samantaray.
Samantaray further said that only Mayor Subhash Singh can say whether he had gone to supervise the project or to lay foundation stone. The ex-MLA further said that already the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Petanala project was prepared in 2021. Samantaray also expressed concern as the present MLA Mohammad Moquim was also not invited.
Commenting on the development, Moquim said, “They would not have even dreamt of taking up the work at Petanala drain in CDA. The Mayor is falsely claiming that the renovation work was in their manifesto as the process was underway since a long time. The renovation work could have easily been finished in between 2009-2019, if it was their brainchild.”
Further commenting on not being invited, he added that the Petanala project wasn’t officially inaugurated and he would grace the occasion on the official inauguration day.
The statements of Samantaray is now being seen as an indication towards a possible rift and infighting in the BJD in Cuttack.
Meanwhile, neither Mayor Subhash Singh nor CMC officials could be contacted for their reaction on the matter.
Earlier on Saturday, CMC Mayor, CMC Commissioner, corporators of several wards and BJD workers attended the stone-laying ceremony. When Singh was laying the stone for the renovation work, Congress workers gheroed him for not inviting the Barabati-Cuttack MLA, Mohammed Moquim to the event.