‘Help strengthen PM Modi’s hands’

ANGUL: Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has called upon people to dislodge the corrupt and inefficient Odisha government from power as it has done nothing for the poor in the last 23 years.
The minister also urged them to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by electing the BJP again in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Pradhan was addressing a large gathering on the occasion of Garib Kalyan Samabesh at Khamara, under Pallahara assembly constituency of Angul district, on the second day of his visit to the district.
Giving a detailed account of the achievements by the Modi government in the last nine years, Pradhan said Odisha and Angul district have greatly benefited from the pro-poor policy of the Centre. He said as against Rs 5,000 crore mining revenue the state was getting earlier, the accrual has now touched Rs 50,000 crore per year. “So also the grant from the finance commission,” he said, adding that earlier the state was getting Rs 69,000 crore under the 13th Finance Commission, which is now Rs 2,20,000 crore.
Pradhan also said the Modi government has provided the state with maximum allocations under various pro-poor schemes, but the government has failed to provide the poor with benefits.
The minister said that in last 6-7 years, Angul district provided Rs 60,000 crore to the state exchequer, but the government continues to deprive it. “There is power cut, no irrigation facilities and nothing else in the industrial district despite it providing maximum revenue to the state,” Pradhan said.
He also said the central government is taking care of the people of Pallahara by providing rail link under Talcher-Bimlagarh rail line. He said despite the coal mines and Rengali irrigation project, there is no canal water for farmers, no piped water supply and lack of irrigation facilities in the region. The state government has done nothing in this regard, Pradhan said.
Referring to the seizure of crores of money from tainted officials, Pradhan said the money belongs to the poor and urged people to remove the state government from power.