Odisha BJP Accuses Govt Of Misleading Assembly On Migrant Labourers

Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday accused Odisha government of misleading the Assembly on migrant labourers.

The state leader of BJP, Tejeswar Parida, in a press meet in Bhubaneswar, said the rescue of Odisha labourers from the collapsed tunnel in Uttarakhand has exposed the false data furnished by Labour Minister Sarada Prasad Nayak.

Parida said in reply to a question of Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati during winter session of the Assembly, the Labour Minister had said no labourers from 9 districts including Bhadrak, Angul, Boudh, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Malkangiri, Sonepur and Sundargarh, have gone to other states for jobs.

But one of the rescued labourers from the tunnel has been identified as Basudevpur in Bhadrak district, Parida said adding that it has proved that the minister had misled the Assembly in his reply.

Challenging the Minister’s data, Parida said while the former informed the House that no one from his home district Sundargarh had migrated to other states for livelihood, the bodies of two migrant labourers from Baragaon block in the district were brought to their native places recently. The BJP has all documents in this regard, he added.

Besides, there were media reports that Kanti Kumbhar, who was elected as the chairperson of Dhanakauda block in Sambalpur in 1997, was working as a migrant labourer in Tamil Nadu, the BJP leader said.

He also alleged that the BJD government had failed to provide jobs to the youths forcing them to migrate to other states in search of livelihood. “Thousands of Odia youths from every district are migrating to other states. The government has not only failed to keep any record in this regard but also furnished false data to hoodwink the people,” he added.