Mrunal Manmay Dash

Following Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s assurance of turning Padampur into a district by December 2023, senior BJP leader and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi retaliated terming the claim as misleading to woo voters.

Targetting Patnaik, Sarangi said that the BJD had announced that Padampur will be made a district. It has been over two decades since the promise was made, but nothing has been done by the State government in this regard so far, she said.

“Now that the bypoll is nearing, the BJD has played its district card again assuring to make Padampur a district by December 2023. But I was deeply disheartened to hear the Revenue Minister’s statement in the Assembly on Thursday when she said there are no plans afoot for the districthood of Padampur,” Sarangi added.

Bringing up the development agenda to the fore, Sarangi said, “I was the District Collector of Padampur before 20 years. All the towns of the district including Padampur look exactly the same as before and they are deprived of any development for the last 20 years.”

“There was a time when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik promised to irrigate 35% farm land in 198 blocks of the State, which included Padampur, Jharbandha and Paikmal block. I am still wondering, what happened to that promise,” she said.

“People’s representatives are answerable to the people. As a voter of Odisha State, I ask CM Naveen Patnaik, did he show the report card of 2021-22 financial year to 4.5 crore Odias? People need to know, whether the promises made during elections are delivered or not,” asked Sarangi.

Reiterating BJP’s stand on Bargarh-Nuapara railway project, Sarangi said that the work on the project will start the day after the State government provides land to the Indian Railways.

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