Bhubaneswar: The ongoing ‘picture politics’ between the BJP and BJD saw the latter questioning the exclusion of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik from an advertisement issued by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) on whose land the Rourkela airport has been built.
While the saffron party was peeved after it found Prime Minister Narendra Modi missing from posters, banners, and newspaper advertisements ahead of the inauguration of commercial flight services to Rourkela, state Science and Technology Minister Ashok Panda on Sunday said the ‘kind-hearted’ BJP should have ensured that chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s photograph remained in SAIL’s advertisement.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who earlier slammed the BJD government for not giving ‘due credit’ to PM Modi and Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, said that the airport land belonged to the SAI and the direct flight service between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela has been launched at a low price under the Centre’s UDAN scheme. Though I appreciate that the chief minister requested the Centre for the flight service, there was no justification in putting his photograph in SAIL’s advertisement,” he added.
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Notably, the Civil Aviation Ministry spent around Rs 60 crore for developing the airport while SAIL provided additional 143 acres of land for its expansion. In addition, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), which owns the airport, would bear the cost of operation, which comes around to Rs 3 crore per annum.
While criticising the BJD government for appropriating central schemes, Leader of Opposition Jayanarayan Mishra also targetted the CM for not inviting President Droupadi Murmu and PM Modi to the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup while invites are being sent to chief ministers of different states for attending the mega event starting January 13.
