Bhubaneswar: The Congress party on Tuesday targeted the ruling BJD over the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and said the State government had failed to execute the scheme properly in Odisha.
The State unit of the age-old party, which convened a meeting here to commemorate completion of 10 years of MGNREGA, also criticised the BJD for the latter’s failure on all fronts.
"The State government has crippled the MGNREGA, which aimed to uplift the economically weaker sections of the society. It has no interest to continue the scheme in the State,” Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said.
Launching a scathing attack on BJD, Mishra stated the ruling party only wanted its own schemes to run in the State so that it can strengthen its vote bank.
Turning his attention inwards, Mishra urged party leaders to sort out their differences and strengthen the party’s base at grassroots level.
“The followers of Congress party are still united and mentally very strong. The only thing they are worried about is the conflict among our leaders. The intra-party squabble must be resolved in closed doors."
Addressing the gathering, senior leader Niranjan Patnaik said time has come for the party to reach out to the people.
“I admit that we have failed to achieve our target, which we could have done in the past 10 years. And now our aim will be to reach people at the grassroots level,” Patnaik stated.