Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik countered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charge of rampant corruption in Odisha saying “they should be concerned about the Skill Mission and Ujjwala scams and the record rocketing prices of fuel for which people of the country are suffering”.
Clearly rattled by the frontal attack on his government by the PM, who alleged that no work in the state moves unless bribe in terms of percentage of the project cost (PC) is given, the Odisha CM reacted by asking, “Did he really say that it is a PC government?”
When reporters pointed out that the PM had indeed used the term to accuse his government, the CM hit back raising questions on the skill mission and LPG connection related scheme.
The CM also rebutted the charges on food security and universal health scheme by pointing out that the state’s own schemes are better than that of the Centre’s.
“We cover 50 lakh more people in the health scheme than that of the Centre and the health coverage is up to Rs 7 lakh for women whereas it is just five lakh under the central scheme,” asserted Patnaik.
“In the food security scheme, the state has added an additional 25 lakh people under its cover,” he pointed out.
Replying to Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s charge that the BJD has to explain why it rejected the offer to field a candidate for the post of deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha, the CM said, “That is not correct, we supported Nitish Kumar’s candidate.”
On the other hand, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan responded to the charges made by the CM on Ujjwala and Skill India Mission by saying that jaundice-eyed people are bound to see yellow in everything.
Commenting on the trading of charges between the BJD and BJP, Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik said that it is a “mock fight” as both parties were worried over losing ground due to the fact that their secret political deal had been exposed.