BJD’s celebrations like 'Nero fiddling while Rome burned': BJP

Bhubaneswar: The State BJP today came down heavily on the way BJD is celebrating CM Naveen Patnaik’s award and said the gala is like 'Nero fiddling while Rome burned'.

At a press meet, party vice president Sameer Mohanty said strategies will be chalked out in the executive meet to make people aware that BJD is celebrating a sponsored award while the State is grappling with ambulance failure, mining scam and massive communication problems.

BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday also questioned the credibility of the Odisha CM as best administrator saying that Supreme Court has already exposed the mining scam in the State.

Describing the ‘Outlook India Speakout best administrator award’ given to Patnaik recently as a publicity stunt, the Oil Minister said, “If the Chief Minister is hailed as the best administrator even after the mining scam involving crores of rupees during the BJD rule, it is surprising”.

Reacting to Pradhan's remarks, BJD MLA from Cuttack-Barbati Debasish Samantray said political ability of Naveen Patnaik has been proved in the country. "The award is a pride for our State. A transparent and thorough survey was made before selection of the award. Dharmendra's comment is politically motivated and he is jealous of the CM," he said.

On Pradhan’s statement that Naveen garnered the award after giving adequate commercial advertisements to the magazine, Samantray said he lacks knowledge about the national magazine. Being a PSU, rather the IOCL is spending for the BJP, he stated.

Meanwhile, the celebrations continued as members of at least 20 organisations and Secretariat staff gathered at Naveen Niwas and the State Secretariat respectively to felicitate the CM for achieving the award.

Patnaik recently won the Outlook Speakout Award-2017 as best administrator of the country in Delhi.