Dharmendra Pradhan accuses Naveen Patnaik of 'purposely delaying' series of Centre-initiated development projects

Puri: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has been purposely delaying several development projects initiated by the Central Government for welfare of the state. He made the comment while addressing a gathering in Brahmagiri, Puri on Thursday, where he handed over LPG connections to women. Around 1500 Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana gas connections were released. [caption id=“attachment_4623851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Image courtesy: PIB[/caption] “From 1955 to 2014, only 13 crore people had LPG connection, mostly belonging to rich families. Even in Odisha, out of one crore families, only 20 lakh had LPG connections. Today, under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, LPG connection has reached to 75 lakh families of Odisha,” Pradhan said. “In Puri amongst the four lakh families, only 78,000 had LPG connection. While in Brahmagiri only 1,414 out of 31,129 households had LPG connections till 2014, which has increased to 2.49 lakh families in Puri and 13,978 households in Brahmagiri under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership,” he added. Pradhan also highlighted that after being in power for 19 long years and often boasting of being the best administrator, BJD president Patnaik has" failed to provide" piped drinking water in Krushnaprasad village. “He doesn’t even seem to understand the problems faced by the people in Krushnaprasad,” Pradhan said “Brahmagiri will benefit the most from the Sagar Mala and Bharat Mala projects across Odisha coast. But even after three years, the state government is yet to hand over land for the projects. Patnaik has land to allot for a beer factory in Dhenkanal, but not for development projects. Beside this, Odisha state government’s Coastal Zone Authority is also delaying permission for construction of a bridge over Chilika lake. Patnaik is purposely delaying several development projects of central government just to whitewash his ignorance towards developing Odisha,” he added. Pradhan further mentioned that on 24 December, 2018, “Patnaik had announced to provide land for a memorial of legendary revolutionary Buxi Jagabandhu, but till date no steps have been taken in the connection. He is now delaying even the tribute to a legendary Odia revolutionary.”