Odisha needs double engine growth: UP CM

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday called for Odisha's support in the upcoming elections to ensure "double engine" growth with BJP governments in the Centre and the state.

Odisha will face general and assembly elections simultaneously.

"If BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is given a chance in Odisha, the state will have a high growth rate like UP. A BJP government in the state, as well as Modi government at Centre, will ensure double engine growth," said Adityanath at Bhawanipatna in western Odisha.

He was addressing BJP booth-level workers of five Lok Sabha constituencies - Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Koraput, Balangir and Nabarangpur.

Informing that Odisha is going to play a major role in making Narendra Modi the country's Prime Minister again, he asked the party workers to strengthen the booths.

"Like the panchayat elections where the electorate reposed their faith on BJP, we expect the same trust of voters during the 2019 elections," he added.

The UP Chief Minister also criticised the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)-led Odisha government for failing to carry out development and getting mired in corruption.

He said the Odisha government's KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme has no stability and is already into corruption before it was launched while the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana is clean and will immensely benefit farmers across the country.

He said the Central scheme would help the small and marginal farmers with Rs 6,000 per annum cash assistance.

"In 19 years of rule, the Odisha government has constructed only 17 lakh pucca houses while the UP government has already provided 20 lakh houses to poor people under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in only two years of BJP governance," informed Yogi.

He also criticised the state government for trying to hijack the food security scheme.

While the Central government provides subsidy of Rs 29 per kg of rice, the state government gives only at Re 1, he informed.

Attacking the Congress, he said the party had sown the seed of appeasement by linking religion with country's resources and terrorism is the outcome of such appeasement.

The BJP is the only party which can give a befitting response to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, he added.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan attacked the BJD government saying that it has failed to provide basic facilities to the people in the last 19 years.

He said the Chief Minister has no knowledge about who actually belongs to the farming community as several MLAs and MPs were found enrolled in the KALIA scheme.

--IANS

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