Pradeep Singh

Berhampur: Citing allegations of corrupt percentage commission practice in government works in Odisha, Senior BJP leader and Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday lashed out at the BJD-led government stating that it is dipped in massive corruption and labelled it as a 'percentage' government.

Addressing a presser in Berhampur on the second day of his three-day visit to Odisha, Javadekar alleged that bureaucrats are running the State and held the BJD responsible for misgovernance.

"In Odisha there is 'officer raj' and it is being run through 'BJDtantra' and not 'Loktantra' (Democracy). The BJD has killed the democratic form of governance. It is also discriminating in selection and execution of schemes," he said.

Besides, he accused the Naveen government of hijacking Central schemes.

In reaction to Javadekar's remarks, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said that the BJP is scared and that's the reason why Javadekar is making such statements.

"Javadekar's allegations are baseless and weird. Odisha is experiencing 'vikashtantra'; his statements reflect BJP's sense of fear," he said.

Patra also requested and dared the BJP and Javadekar to show if ever the centre has made any allegations against the state regarding 'percentage' commission practice.

On 'scheme-hijacking' allegations, Patra said the State government shares expenditures in all the Central schemes. Giving an example, he questioned: "If the Centre and Odisha share expenditure in 60:40 ratio for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, how could it be a Central scheme alone? Are we calling it Pradhan Mantri Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojna? No. Then who is hijacking the schemes, Odisha or the Centre?

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