Bhubaneswar: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday launched the election campaign for the Congress party in Odisha by making a scathing attack on both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha at an election meeting at Salepur.
Addressing the gathering that arrived from Jajpur, Kendrapara Cuttack, and other nearby places braving severe heatwave conditions, Rahul Gandhi took a dig at Chief Minister Patnaik saying Pandian (V K Pandian,) the bureaucrat-turned-politician is running the government in Odisha.
He said both Prime Minister Modi and Patnaik were running the government at the Centre and Odisha respectively for certain selected people. While Modi runs the government from Delhi for crorepatis, the Naveen Patnaik government works for selected people of Odisha.
Gandhi said the BJP and BJD are in a wedlock running a partnership government. He said they gave PANN to the people of Odisha (explaining it as Pandian, Amit Shah, Narendra Modi, and Naveen Patnaik).
The Congress leader said the Odisha government has looted crores of rupees through various scams like mining scam, land grabbing scheme and promised to return the money looted to the people after the Congress came to power.
Gandhi promised to launch ‘Pahli Naukari Pakki ‘ scheme to give jobs to one lakh educated youths in public sector, private sector and government offices, besides doubling the wages of ASHA and Anganwadi workers, and hiking the wages of workers under the MGNREGS to Rs 400 per day, 200 units of free electricity and providing cooking gas cylinder at Rs 500 each to the people.
He also promised to waive the loans of farmers and hiking the MSP of paddy. Gandhi said if the Congress came to power a list of the poor people would be made and a sum of Rs one lakh would be directly transferred to the accounts of one woman in each family at the rate of Rs 8,500 per month.
UNI
