Odisha Not Giving Land For Paika Memorial, Says Yogi

Bhubaneswar: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday spoke out against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, saying Odisha does not honour its freedom fighters. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to set up a memorial in honour of those who took part in the Paika rebellion on its 200^thanniversary, but the state government did not give land for the purpose.

Yogi was addressing a party workers’ rally at Nachuni in Khurda district for the BJP’s Mission 2019. He began his speech by paying tribute to soldiers who lost their lives in Pulwama.

He also said that Naveen was wrongly taking the credit for providing rice to the poor at Re 1 a kilo under the PDS scheme. Yogi said that rice costs Rs 31 a kg but Rs 29 is provided as subsidy by the BJP-ruled Centre, so all it costs the state government is Re 1.

Speaking about Ayushman Bharat Yojana, under which every poor family is to get a health insurance cover for Rs 5 lakh a year, he said that the Odisha CM was not implementing it in the state. He said Uttar Pradesh was implementing it but Naveen was not willing to implement any central scheme that would benefit the poor, backward classes, farmers, labourers and women.

He said under the Prime Minister’s Kisan Samman Nidhi, small and marginal farmers are set to get Rs 6,000 on February 24. But Naveen is not sending farmers to the Centre.

“In these four-and-a-half years, your son of the soil and Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan ensured that 12 crore families got cooking gas (LPG) connections,” Yogi said. “If you take a look at figures, 13 crore people had got LPG collections from 1947-2014. But in just four and a half years, from 2014 to 2018, under the PM, 12 crore families got LPG connections. Thanks to Modiji and Dharmendra Pradhanji, the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has solved energy problems and people’s health problems too.”

He said it was for the first time in India, that a Prime Minister was saying that every poor family should get energy, a toilet, electricity and job facilities. “Where we have BJP state governments, this is easily done. In states with non-BJP governments, obstacles come in the way of achieving the Prime Minister’s goals,” Yogi said.

He cited how in Uttar Pradesh, under Swachh Bharat Yojana, 2 crore 60 lakh families had got toilets in just two years, whereas the Odisha government has not provided the same in the state in the last four years.

He said that under Awas Yojana, the Naveen Patnaik government has provided just 17 lakh families homes in 19 years, whereas his government has provided the same to 20 lakh families in just two years.

Also, the Uttar Pradesh government had provided electricity to 1 crore families, he added.

Yogi asked party workers to manage their booths well during the upcoming polls. He reminded how the Prime Minister had coined “Mera booth, sabse mazboot (my booth strongest)”, and asked all to ensure that the party did well in their booth. He said winning a booth means winning the seat.