Centre slams Odisha for 'hijacking' its schemes

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday criticised the Odisha government for trying to hijack centrally-sponsored schemes and dubbed the move as 'undemocratic mentality'.

Pradhan said while the central government has implemented several welfare schemes in Odisha, the state government is trying to take credit for the schemes.

"The centrally-sponsored schemes are being publicised as if being implemented by the state government and its supreme leader," said the minister while addressing a function at the state BJP headquarters here to mark the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan.

He cited the instance of central flagship programme National Food Security Act which is meant to provide subsidised food grains to the poor people across the country including the state.

But, it is propagated that the state government is responsible for the implementation of the act and the government is being given credit for providing cheap food grains to the people, he added.

The union minister also raised a question over the opposition of the state government for linking the bank accounts of the LPG consumers that would enable them to avail the gas subsidy directly to their accounts.

He said his ministry is planning to provide gas subsidy to at least 3.5 crore people in the state.

He also said that while the central government has proposed to set up five medical colleges in the state with 95 percent share, the state government is trying to take credit for setting up of the medical colleges.

Pradhan asked the party workers to organise a massive movement to dethrone "the one-man-party in the state" targetting the Naveen Patnaik-led ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which has been in power since 2000.