Odisha’s ruling BJD nails BJP with comparative growth figures

Bhubaneswar: The eastern Indian state of Odisha has the dubious distinction of catching the eyeballs for abject poverty, hunger, underdevelopment, malnutrition and illiteracy. The ruling party, however, paints a divergent picture of the growth story in the last 17 years of Naveen Patnaik’s regime.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) vice president and veteran party leader Dr Damodar Rout lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not fulfilling poll promises made in the last twin elections.

This comes a day after party supremo Naveen Patnaik took an indirect jibe at BJP and Narendra Modi government for neglecting the state.

The BJD stalwart held a press conference here today where he put a nine-point poser for the saffron party.

“The Prime Ministers eyed for their party forming governments in every state. In the last three years, Prime Minister has turned a blind eye to the constitutional norms, traditions and principles. His only intention is to form government in all states and enforce his monopolistic rule. From Prime Minister to BJP National President, all have a single point agenda to defame Naveen Patnaik for which I decided to come up with a comparative study,” Rout said.

Rout read out a comparative analysis of various growth parameters with four BJP-ruled states as below:

Literacy Rate (male): Odisha 81.6%, Rajasthan 50.51%, Gujarat 87.23%, Chhattisgarh 81.45%, Jharkhand 78.45%

Literacy Rate (female): Odisha 64%, Rajasthan 52.66%, Gujarat 70.73%, Chhattisgarh 60.59%, Jharkhand 56.21%

Infant Mortality Rate (per 1000): Odisha 40, Rajasthan 49, Gujarat 36, Chhattisgarh 46, Jharkhand 38

Maternal Mortality Rate (per 1 lakh): Odisha 258, Rajasthan 255, Gujarat 122, Chhattisgarh 230, Jharkhand 219

Institutional Child Delivery (Hospital): Odisha 85.04%, Rajasthan 84%, Gujarat 88.7%, Chhattisgarh 70.2%, Jharkhand 61.9%

Gender Ratio (per 1000): Odisha 979, Rajasthan 861, Gujarat 854, Chhattisgarh 961, Jharkhand 902

GSDP: Odisha 7.94%, Rajasthan 4.94%, Gujarat 7.31%, Chhattisgarh 1.77%, Jharkhand 1.65%

Growth Rate in last One Decade (National Average 4.88%): Odisha 14.40%, Rajasthan 6.65%, Gujarat 10.17%, Chhattisgarh 6.38%, Jharkhand 14.07%

Service Sector (National Average 7.74%): Odisha 8.8%

Similarly, Rout targeted BJP National President Amit Shah over his son Jay Amit Kumar’s property registering a 16000 fold increase. Besides, Narendra Modi had promised to increase the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy. What about that? He asked.

“Narendra Modi had promised to bring back black money stashed in offshore accounts in 100 days and deposit Rs 15 lakh in every Indian’s account. After touring 134 nations, how much money has returned to country,” he questioned.

Reacting to this, BJP leader Sajjan Sharma said: “BJD is disturbed with BJP’s queries. Rout is veering away from basic questions our party has put.”