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Oust BJD Government: Rahul

—Photo: PTI / Atul Yadav

SPECIAL MISSION: AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi arrives for a public meeting in Berahampur in Orissa on Sunday.

BERHAMPUR: General secretary of the Congress Rahul Gandhi on Sunday asked the people of Orissa to change the BJD-BJP Government in the State. He was addressing a rally of farmers and youth in the city. Making his political intentions clear, Mr. Gandhi hit out at the “failures” of the State government.

Other Congress leaders present at the rally like Union Ministers Chandrasekhar Sahu and Ajay Makan, national Youth Congress leader Ashok Tanwar, State Congress president Jayadev Jena, in their speeches, had already described Mr. Gandhi as the mentor of fate of Orissa.

Describing his travel through different parts of Orissa and interaction with people, Mr Gandhi said: “I have always been under the impression that Uttar Pradesh is poor and underdeveloped because I have not seen Orissa.” He described Orissa as a State rich in resources, where poor people lived only due to wrong governance by the State government. He alleged that the present government had failed to reach out to the common masses. “The money sent from the Centre for pro-poor developmental projects is not reaching the people and 65 per cent of this money is being returned from as unutilised funds,” he said.

Brushing aside the allegation of the State government that the Centre was neglecting Orissa, he said that people were languishing in poverty only because the money from the Centre meant for the poor was not being utilised by the State government. He said he was irked to find the pathetic condition of schools and hostels in the State. “At a girls’ hostel, I found eight inmates using three cots joined together due to lack of space and furniture,” he said.

Congress supporters from Ganjam and Gajapati districts had attended the rally. Later, Mr. Gandhi went to Gopalpur.

He held discussions with the local NGOs regarding developmental issues.

Breaking from his schedule, he visited marine fishermen’s village, Kamlapur, and interacted with the fishermen about their problems.

Earlier, on his third day in Orissa, he visited Angul, where he unveiled a statue of his father Rajiv Gandhi, which awaited inauguration since last nine years. He visited the NALCO plant site and workers’ colony. He air-dashed to Karanjia before reaching Berhampur by helicopter.

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