Bhubaneswar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a state-wide agitation in Odisha on Tuesday against the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government alleging large scale corruption in all spheres.
BJP workers and leaders staged demonstrations outside block offices across the state as part of the five-day protest. The saffron party activists also staged protest outside the offices of civic bodies alleging rampant corruption in the government.
In the state capital, the protesters alleged large scale corruption in implementing the Smart City project and dumped a truckload of garbage in front of the office of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Alleging rampant corruption, the demonstrators also held the civic body responsible for the Gadakana dumping yard row. They lashed out at the BMC over dumping of huge volume of garbage at the Temporary Transit Centre (TTS) behind Sainik School.
The protesters recalled that the BMC had taken in July this year dumped a tractor-load of trash in front of a hotel in the city for allegedly flouting sanitation norms. As the civic body has failed to maintain cleanliness in the city, garbage was dumped in front of its office, they said.
Hitting out at the state government over corruption, they alleged that officials are pocketing crores of rupees sent by the Centre under the Smart City project. But the city has been turned into a dumping yard with foul smell of garbage everywhere, said a BJP leader.
The demonstrators lashed out at the civic body over the dumping yards and waste management system in Bhubaneswar and accused it of having failed to curb the mosquito menace.
BJP leaders said that though the central government, under the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions, had sanctioned crores for the state under different schemes, the money is being amassed by corrupt officials and petty political leaders at the block and panchayat levels.
As a result, the benefits different schemes are not reaching the poor people of the state. The blocks have turned into a den to collect commission or percentage, they claimed.
Reacting Sharply to the dumping of garbage by BJP activists outside the BMC office, Bhubaneswar Mayor Sulochana Das termed the act as ‘shameful’ and said the saffron party has no issue before it.
She further alleged that the BJP MP from Bhubaneswar had created a dumping yard at Daruthenga during her tenure as the BMC Commissioner.
Stating that the BMC is committed to clear the garbage and make the city clean and beautiful, she said the civic body has been working for the residents. “We assure the people of Bhubaneswar that no dumping yard will be built in the city anymore,” Das said.
The city’s wastes will be processed at existing 34 micro composting centres (MCCs) and a mega MCC unit that is being built in Palasuni area, she added.
