Devbrat Patnaik

Bhubaneswar: Following resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik from Bijepur Assembly seat on Sunday, Odisha BJP Vice President Samir Mohanty strongly criticised the decision of the CM while claiming that Patnaik has failed the people of Bijepur and West Odisha.

Mohanty said, "Mission Western Odisha has failed. The people urged him to contest from there with certain expectations in mind. The CM has failed them. He vacated the Bijepur seat and retained his home turf Hinjili."

"It may also be noted that the CM had promised various schemes for the Bijepur residents post the by-elections in 2018. Hardly anything has progressed, and again he announced few more packages for the people. The CM is hoodwinking the people. This for me is the first deceptive game of his 5th term," added Mohanty.

Senior Congress leader Arya Kumar Gyanendra, on the other hand, said, "It was evident that he would vacate the Bijepur seat because a day before he announced a slew of sops for the constituency. Bijepur by-elections will again witness lavish expenses similar to Patkura poll, there's no doubt."

Responding to this, BJD leader Sushant Singh said, "By-polls were conducted in many places earlier. But now Naveen Patnaik has opened the treasury for the development of Bijepur area. We are not bothered about the by-polls. We are only concerned about the development of Bijepur. BJD's prime motive has been development of Odisha."

New Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das says CM Naveen has ensured all round development of Bijepur and will himself monitor implementation of packages announced for the Assembly segment.

Odisha CM and BJD president Naveen Patnaik resigned from Bijepur Assembly constituency and retained the Hinjli seat yesterday. Patnaik sent his resignation as legislator from Bijepur constituency in Bargarh district to Assembly Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro.

The BJD chief had contested the Assembly elections from Hinjili in Ganjam district as well as Bijepur in Western Odisha and emerged victorious from both the constituencies.

Before resigning, CM Naveen Patnaik announced a Rs 1,330 crore package, including plans to provide pucca houses to 34,000 households in Bijepur Assembly constituency. As part of the package, two mega pipe water schemes will be executed at an estimated cost of Rs 1,120 crore covering 8 lakh population of 505 villages of Bargarh district where Bijepur is located, sources said.

Package for each town will cost Rs 40 crore and the works will be completed within two years. In order to provide quality power to the farmers, separate agriculture feeders totalling 60 km of 33 KV line and 125 kms of 11 KV line will be constructed. Besides, 50 new distribution transformers will also be set up to improve the voltage level, added sources.

scrollToTop