Cracks in BJD's Angul unit appear

Angul: Rift in ruling-BJD's Angul district unit came to fore after sarpanches of as many as 15 panchayats on Wednesday alleged negligence by party MLA and the local administration.

Hundreds of party workers, chiefs of the panchayats, samiti members and block vice -chairpersons staged a dharna in front of the block office and accused the administration and BJD MLA Rajanikant Singh's of neglecting them during the Ama Gaon Ama Vikash programme on Tuesday. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik interacted with the village representatives through video conference during the programme.

The agitators also complained that the local MLA had not informed them about the programme in advance.

Mamata Pradhan, Angul block vice-chairman said "Being people's representatives if we are not informed about such important programmes, then how can we work for the development of the village. We will blame both the administration and the MLA for not inviting us to take part in the programme."

"We have given a memorandum to the BDO addressed to the chief minister and cited our concerns requesting the CM to take necessary steps in this regard," said Rantalei Samiti member Sujeet Sahoo.