Orissa govt's vision 2020 misleading: Samrudha Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Oct 17 (UNI) Samrudha Orissa (SO), a newly formed regional political outfit, today dubbed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's tall claim in a vision paper to bring down the number of BPL people to 10 per cent by 2020 ''false and misleading''.

Samrudha Orissa President J C Mohanty told newsmen here that the number of people living below the poverty line had increased, agriculture production nosedived and the area under irrigation facilities declined during the seven year rule of Mr Naveen Patnaik.

Mr Mohanty said poverty had risen and agriculture production declined as the chief minister lacked a holistic approach and sincerity in planning and implemention of various programmes.

''The Chief Minister was misleading and betraying the people of the state by providing false statistics and making all tall claims to come to power again,'' he alleged.

The SO President said the state planning Board had met four years after Mr Patnaik came to power and described the government's claim that the number of poor had decreased by 7 per cent from 2000 to 2005 as totally false.

Quoting official figures, he said percentage wise the number of poor had decreased by only .8 per cent during the period and the number of people living below the poverty line had increased by 10 lakh during the period.

He said though the government claimed that the agriculture production would rise by 4 per cent it showed a negative growth rate during the last six years. Similarly, the area under irrigation declined while the government announced to cover 35 per cent of the toal agricultural land in a block.

The Chief Minister had not fulfilled his promise to give more power to the Revenue Inspectors, open Tahasil offices in every block and provide safe drinking water to the people and make a plan for the beautification of the capital city with the assistance of IIT kaharagpur, Mr Mohanty said.

UNI