Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s challenge to Chief Minister of Odisha to list the state’s districts, Naveen Patnaik declared that Modi is only remembering the state during election season, “which will be of no use.”
In a video message, CM Patnaik asked PM Modi, “Do you remember the promises you made in the 2014 and 2019 elections?”
“Odisha’s natural wealth is coal and you take coal from Odisha but you have forgotten to increase the royalty in the last 10 years. The Prime Minister is remembering Odisha only at election time, which will be of no use. Do you remember the promises you made in 2014 and 2019?” he said.
He also emphasized that, as of right now, the PM has not fulfilled his pledge to increase the MSP for Odisha’s farmers.
“You should have kept the people of Odisha in mind and built the coastal highway, which you have also forgotten. People of Odisha remember your promise to reduce prices of essential commodities, to create two crore jobs, to reduce prices of LPG, petrol, and diesel, to provide mobile connectivity to all and to reduce GST. The people of Odisha have not forgotten any of these,” CM Patnaik said.
The chief minister of Odisha further emphasized that the prime minister had forgotten about Odia, despite the language being designated as classical.
“You’ve set aside Rs. 1000 crores for Sanskrit development, but you haven’t given the Odia language any funding at all. You have also forgotten about the melody of Odissi. I’ve submitted requests for Odissi to be recognized in classical music, but you’ve turned them down twice,” he continued.
Claiming that Odisha has courageous sons, some of whom the PM mentioned in his election campaign, the leader of the BJD posed the question, “Don’t any of them deserve the Bharat Ratna? You have distributed the Bharat Ratna to a huge number of people, but once more you have forgotten about Biju Patnaik, the son of Odisha.”
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