Bhubaneswar: Expelled from the BJD a few days back, senior leader Damodar Rout does not seem to relent from making scathing attacks on almost all BJD leaders including the party president and CM Naveen Patnaik. Continuing the tirade, Rout today once again lambasted CM Patnaik alleging that he has made corruption a policy of the government.
“While former Chief Minister Biju Babu used to ask people of the State to thrash corrupt officials, his son Naveen has made corruption a policy statement,” stated Rout speaking to mediapersons.
Besides, Rout said the Chief Minister knowingly allocated him the Excise department so that he will be asked to quit the post in case any death happens due to liquor consumption.
"But no one was killed due to liquor consumption during my tenure as Excise Minister. Rather, revenue of the Excise department increased to Rs 2,800 Cr during my tenure from Rs 1400 Cr earlier. If there are any irregularities in liquor shop license allocation as alleged by Sameer Das, he can disclose those," stated the senior legislator.
The senior politician also came down heavily on Cooperation Minister Surya Narayan Patro who had raised fingers at him alleging the senior leader’s link with gangster Tito. "SN Patro does not have moral standing to level charges against me. The government can handover the case to the Interpol instead of SIT to find out anything about me," said Rout.