BHUBANESWAR: Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition J.B.

Patnaik on Tuesday criticised Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik for taking an anti-UPA Government stand and blaming the Central Government for its alleged neglect of Orissa on various fronts.

At a press conference here, the Leader of Opposition said that the Chief Minister was condemning the Centre and announcing new schemes that overlapped with the Central schemes with a view to hiding the failures of his Government.

`Corruption rampant'

"When corruption has become rampant in every sphere of life and the Government has failed to utilise Central funds released for various developmental projects, the Chief Minister has started taking an anti-Centre position to cover up his Government's failures," the senior Congress leader charged.

Observing that the BJD-BJP alliance Government had miserably failed with regard to rural electrification, the Congress leader said that the Chief Minister had recently announced the Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana when the Centre had not refused to cover the villages having less than 300 population under the Rajiv Gandhi Gram Vidyutikaran Yojana. "All that the Central Government has said that the Rajiv Gandhi Gram Vidyutikaran Yojana was initially covering villages having more than and 300 population," he said. The Opposition Leader also blamed the Chief Minister for announcing the Biju KBK Yojana a few months ago when the Central Government's KBK Programme was very much in force. "The Chief Minister launched the Biju KBK Yojana by spreading misinformation that the UPA Government had reduced its grants for development of the KBK region," he said. He said that a backward State like Orissa could not take a strong stand against the Centre.

"The Chief Minister and his colleagues don't seem to know what exactly they are saying," the Congress leader said.

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