Odisha Bypoll: Aparajita Slams Naveen Over Padampur District Promise

Padampur: After Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik promised to accord district status to Padampur in 2023, senior BJP leader and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi lashed out at the BJD President accusing him of misleading people ahead of the bypoll.

Mounting a scathing attack on Naveen, Sarangi said the BJD had announced long ago that Padampur will be made a district. Though over two decades have elapsed since the promise was made, no step has been taken by the state government to keep its words, she said.

The BJP leader said that Naveen has tried to play the district card now in an attempt to woo the voters ahead of the December 5 by-election to Padampur constituency.

Sarangi said the Revenue and Disaster Mangement Minister on Thursday informed the state Assembly that there are no plans for the districthood of Padampur.

Therefore, it is clear that the Chief Minister by promising to make Padampur a district in 2023 is simply misleading the people in a bid to garner support for the ruling BJD in the bypoll, she claimed.

Recallling that she was the District Collector in Bargarh 20 years ago and all the towns of the district including Padampur look exactly the same as before and they are deprived of any development because of negligence of the BJD government

Though Naveen had promised to irrigate 35% farm land in 198 blocks of the state, nothing has been done to improve the situation in Padampur, Jharbandha and Paikmal, the BJP leader said.

“Representatives of the people are answerable to the people. As a voter of Odisha, I want to ask the CM as to whether he showed the report card of 2021-22 financial year to 4.5 crore Odias. People should know whether the promises made during elections are fulfilled or not,”  Sarangi said.