Rahul Gandhi slams Naveen for looting chit fund and mining scam money, assures action if voted to power

Addressing a huge public meeting christened as "Paribartan Sankalap Samabesha’’ at Sarasara ground at Baragarh, Mr Gandhi alleged that Mr Patnaik has looted Rs 50,000 crore from mining scam and Rs 5,000 crore from chit fund scam and distributed the money among his friends.

If voted to power in the state, the Congress, Mr.Gandhi said, will ensure that justice is meted out and the money returned to the people.

Making a scathing attack on both Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress President said both of them have made false promises to the people and the farmers.

He said while Naveen Patnaik promised to construct cold storages, food processing units across the state, provide drinking water to the people and Rs 300 bonus on every quintal of paddy procured, Mr Modi had promised to create two crore jobs and help the farmers in distress.

Gandhi said Bargarh is considered as the rice bowl of Odisha yet the farmers here are committing suicide everyday.There is not a single day, when an incident of farmer suicide was not reported, he remarked.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, had waived loans of Rs 3.5 lakh crore of his 15 industrialist friends and allowed capitalists like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya run away with crores of rupees but did not bother to waive the crop loan of the farmers.

The Congress, he said, has kept its promises and raised the MSP of paddy to Rs 2500 per quintal , waived the crop loan and started the process to set up food processing units in Chhatsigarh, Rajsthan and Madhya Pradesh soon after it came to power in those states.

Mr Gandhi said the Congress does what it says and appealed to the people of the state to vote Congress to power and added that his party will implement the Chhatisgarh model in the state.

Accusing both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of privatizing the health care and educational system in the country, the Congress President promised to provide low cost quality education and quality health care to the people in the country if his party is voted to power.

Describing Odisha as the “centre of unemployment,” Gandhi said,"People are migrating to other states in search of jobs. More than 1.5 lakh government posts are lying vacant in the state." The Congress, he said, if voted to power, would fill up the vacant posts.

He reiterated his earlier allegation that the Odisha government is being run by a select five to six officers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is remotely controlling the Odisha government.

The voice of the poor, farmers, and common people is not reaching the government, he alleged.

He further said while the Congress is trying to unite the country, the Prime Minister is trying to divide the country and appealed to the people to vote for Congress for better development of the state.