Bhubaneswar: The opposition parties on Tuesday came down heavily on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) with the Bharatiya Janata Party alleging that it is surprised to see the ruling party which patronizes scams has started speaking about the fight against corruption.
"BJD has been encouraging corruption in the State since it came to power two decades ago. CM Naveen speaking about zero tolerance to corruption is unbelievable when his party leaders are involved in scams," said Prithviraj Harichandan, general secretary of the State BJP unit.
Congress leader Panchanan Kanungo alleged that the BJD is misleading and fooling people. "I have evidence on how CM Naveen brings corrupt people and make them MLAs. He suspends corrupt officials but again gives them promotion and even parliament tickets."
However, BJD vice-president Devi Mishra rubbished the allegations and stated that those involved in scams and irregularities see corruption in everything.
Former chief secretary Sahadev Sahu said, "Such announcement can't bring transparency. A monitoring authority needs to be set up with the power to even book such corrupt public representatives and officials."
CM Naveen has directed all public representatives, sarpanches, block chairpersons, Zilla Parishad presidents, MLAs, and Ministers to submit property statements every year and also to put them in the public domain.
He has also stated that the property details of the people’s representatives and government employees will be submitted to the Lokayukta.