Showdown time for BJD, Congress

BHUBANESWAR: Claiming a slice of history and legacy of August 9 ‘Kranti Divas’, the BJD and the Congress took to the streets on Tuesday sounding their war bugle. The BJD, in the firing line over various scams, organised a meeting of its young workers __ Yuva Pratinidhi Sammilani __ at Cuttack to raise the issues of Central neglect and rampant corruption in UPA-II. The Congress, trying to fast-track its rejuvenation path under a new president, demonstrated at all the district headquarters demanding  resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for  scams and irregularities in the implementation of Central welfare schemes. The main plank of the Yuva Sammilani of the Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD), attended by Naveen along with a host of ministers and party strategist, Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra, was Central neglect. The issue of special status for Orissa came in handy for the Chief Minister to raise the pitch. Naveen drew a parallel between the ` 21,614 cr Central package to West Bengal and crumbs for Orissa. Special packages, he charged, are being doled out to some States on ‘political considerations.’  “The Centre is giving special package to States on political considerations and Orissa is a victim of its discriminatory policy,” he said, a day after his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar made a similar charge against the Centre. In fact, no government at the Centre has responded to Orissa’s demand for special package and special category status. The BJD’s charge is that the Centre did not come to the rescue of the State even during natural calamities. Naveen alleged that the Centre has also ignored the State’s demand for revision of royalty on minerals and coal at regular intervals causing massive loss of revenue to the State. The Congress, however, countered the BJD charge by alleging that under UPA, there has been no dearth of funds for Orissa to implement development programmes. Despite funds flow, people have not been able to benefit from these because of the State Government’s failure to implement all those welfare programmes. On the other hand, the Government is mired in irregularities, the Congress countered.