Two Union Ministers fail to reach Rourkela for Vikash Utsav

Rourkela: The visit of Union Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishna Pal Gujjar to the steel city was cancelled due to bad weather, Union minister and Sundargarh MP Jual Oram said on Monday.

As Tomar and Gujjar were scheduled to attend the BJP’s Vikash Utsav rally in Rourkela, elaborate arrangements had been made by the BJP and party activists were excited to welcome them. However, due to poor weather, the two Union ministers and BJP national secretary H Raja returned to Delhi midway from Lucknow.

Though poor weather was cited as the reason for cancellation of the visit of the Union ministers and BJP national secretary, the buzz is that Rourkela MLA and BJP leader Dilip Ray’s boycott of the Vikash Utsav over delay in the upgradation of the Ispat General Hospital (IGH) to a medical college and super-specialty hospital could have been the trigger for the no-show by Tomar, Gujjar and Raja.

Begging to differ, Oram said, “Due to bad weather, the Union ministers had to go back from Lucknow. There is no other reason for this.”

He added, “I have the tour programme of the Union ministers, according to which Tomar was supposed to visit SAIL site for a review and have a meeting with different groups. His flight had even taken off from Lucknow which shows he intended to visit Rorkela.”

Asked about any special message for the meeting in his absence, Oram said he has not received anything yet from the Union minister.

“There is no point in holding party programmes,” a peeved Ray had said before leaving for Kolkata last night.

He further stated, “I have talked to Tomar and asked him why it has taken 14 months for the work which should not have taken more than two months. I can understand setting up of the medical college would take time. But the super-specialty hospital can certainly be made operational immediately.”

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in April last year to convert the IGH, owned and managed by the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), into a super specialty hospital and medical college. However, delay in upgradation of the IGH has displeased the Rourkela MLA, which was why he allegedly went to Kolkata to avoid a meeting with the Union ministers here.