Rajnath promises loans for unemployed youth

BJP president Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said his party, if voted to power, would provide bank loans to the educated unemployed youths to start their own businesses after providing skill development training to them.

“We will provide skill development training to the unskilled educated youths if our party forms the government at the Centre,” he said at an election rally here. He alleged that the UPA government has miserably failed to provide employment to the youths.

Singh also addressed election meetings at Kotpad in Koraput, Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi and Phulbani in Kandhamal.

Coming down heavily on the UPA government at the Centre and BJD government in the state, the BJP president said, the Centre has also failed to control the price rise of essential commodities. Similarly, the BJD government has also failed to eradicate poverty in Odisha, he rued.

The BJD is in power for the last 14 years but Kalahandi continues to be the poorest district in the country. “I have got information that research is being conducted on starvation and poverty of Kalahandi in Oxford and Harvard,” he told the gathering.

Highlighting the steps taken by the BJP led government in neighboring Chhattisgarh, he said, “You might have seen Chhattisgarh 10 years ago. Please see the changes that have taken place.

He also recalled the regime of Vajpayee government when the price of the commodities were kept control.

“During the BJP’s reign at the Centre, the country was considered as an emerging superpower,” he claimed.

“While the tribals are happy in Chhattisgarh, their counterparts in Odisha are not getting remunerative prices for their products and are forced to sell them in the neighbouring states,” he stated.

Singh took a dig at both the Centre and the Odisha government, accusing them of rampant corruption.

“In Odisha, the government is involved in mining scam, scam in rural employment scheme and chit fund while the Centre’s corruption has touched over Rs 5 lakh crore. When the ruler is a looter, the people will be pushed to poverty,” he added.

Stating that the law and order situation in Odisha is deteriorating, the BJP leader said, “Every day, the state is witnessing 10 murders or attempts to murder, six kidnappings and 14 dacoities besides atrocities committed on women.”

Raking up the issue of murder of Hindu seer Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, he said, “The state government is yet to arrest the accused even after six years of the incident.”

Saraswati was gunned down on August 23, 2008 at his Jalespeta ashram in Kandhamal district.