Congress plans counter Padayatra

BHUBANESWAR: The Congress on Thursday decided to counter the Lok Sampark Yatra (people’s contact programme) by organising a similar padayatra in all the gram panchayats from November 14 to 19.  Presiding over the first meeting of the party functionaries, Pradesh Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said the proposed yatra would start from November 14, birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and will conclude on November 19, the birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi.  The meeting decided to highlight the failures of the Naveen Patnaik Government in rescue and relief operations during the recent floods and the politics played by the Government by announcing several schemes in the name of Biju Patnaik. The party ridiculed the Government for announcing construction of 1,000 bridges under Biju Setu Yojana within the next three years when it has not been able to construct 12 bridges in the last 12 years of its governance. The Centre has been chastising the BJD Government time and again for its incapacity to utilise the Central assistance. The poor track record of the State Government on utilisation of Central assistance is an open secret. The Congress will enlighten the people during its proposed yatra on the quantum of Central assistance the State received and the amount it surrendered due to non-utilisation in time, the PCC chief said.  The Government decision to develop the flood damaged roads in the rural areas into cement concrete roads was done keeping the  panchayat election in mind. Alleging serious irregularities in the rehabilitation of the flood-affected people and restoration of the damaged infrastructure, senior vice-president Kishore Patel suggested that the restoration works should be done with the approval of the village committees. General secretary of the party Ganeswar Behera said that a proper mechanism should be developed before disbursement of compensation for the damaged crops. The Government must ensure that share croppers get their dues. The meeting also decided to highlight multi-crore mining, dal, rural job, linkage coal scams and the fraudulent manner in which the Government attempted to sell the land of Jagannath temple to Vedanta University during the padayatra.