Congress To Oppose CM’s Malkangiri Visit

Malkangiri: Senior Congress leader and working president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC)  Pradeep Majhi on Friday said his party would oppose the visit of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to Malkangiri district for inauguration of the Gurupriya bridge in the cut-off area of the Chitrakonda block.

Briefing mediapersons at the office of the District Congress Committee (DCC) here, Majhi said the state government has been ignoring the people and tribals of Malkangiri district. “The district administration is not bothered about the plight of the poor tribals of Malkangiri district,” he alleged.

He also said that the state government has not shown keenness on tracing the Bonda student of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in Bhubaneswar, who has been missing since 2015.

The Congress leader further said that the party workers will stage a dharna in front of the district collectorate on July 9 for fulfilment of its five-point charter of demands.

“If the chief minister fails to fulfil our demands, he will not be allowed to enter Malkangiri district,” Majhi warned.

Lambasting the government, he said Congress has been demanding school education for 2,000 tribal students and land pattas (Record of Rights) to the tribals residing in forest areas for the last one year. However, our demands have fallen on deaf ears, he pointed out.

Terming the allegations of the Congress leader as baseless, Malkangiri BJD MLA Manas Madakami said the Congress should welcome the chief minister to inaugurate the Gurupriya bridge, which has been a long-standing demand of the tribals.