Bhubaneswar, Dec. 3: Opposition Congress and BJP today slammed the state government for "splurging" on the Make in Odisha Conclave, which was concluded in the city yesterday, at a time when it has "failed to contain the Japanese encephalitis outbreak" in Malkangiri.
The disease has so far claimed the lives of more than 125 children in the remote tribal district.
The Opposition parties today demanded a statement from the chief minister on the expenditure incurred in the publicity of the much-hyped Make in Odisha Conclave and the measures taken by the government on combating Japanese encephalitis.
"The government created the hype about the conclave simply to divert the public attention from its failures," said Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati, while raising the issue in the Assembly today.
Clarifying that the Congress was not against industrialisation, Bahinipati, who hails from the tribal-dominated Koraput district, said: "What we object to is the vulgar publicity campaign unleashed by the government while hundreds of children are dying in Japanese encephalitis in the tribal areas."
Bahinipati was supported by his party colleague Prafulla Majhi, who called the event a "farce". "The Make in Odisha Conclave was not held for the first time. It was earlier organised in various parts of the country, including Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. What was new in it this time? Why so much hype?" he asked.
Listing the state government's "failures" in providing basic amenities to the people across the state, Congress MLA Nabakishore Das said the state government should be called "Make in Failure" government.
Chandrasekhar Majhi of the Congress lamented that chief minister Naveen Patnaik had not even bothered to visit the Japanese encephalitis-affected Malkangiri even once, while he worked extra hours to create hype for the Make in Odisha Conclave.
Echoing the Congress members, BJP MLA Pradip Purohit said the state government was simply selling dreams while the ground reality was quite different. He claimed that the government had spent Rs 6 crore on foreign trips of the ministers and bureaucrats.
Addressing newsmen at the party office, BJP state general secretary Bhrigu Buxipatra said that although the industrial houses had made a commitment at the Mumbai and Bangalore meets to invest more than Rs 1.6 lakh crore in Odisha, the state government had failed to draw up the action plans to implement these commitments.
"Serious doubts have been raised in the public mind about the claim of the state government to have garnered a commitment to the tune of Rs 2.06 lakh crore at the Bhubaneswar conclave," he said.
"While the government accorded a red carpet welcome to big industrial houses, it had no concrete scheme for the indigenous entrepreneurs," he said. The BJP leader added that the remote and backward areas of the state had been completely left out of the industrialisation drive.
Yesterday, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had claimed at the valedictory event of the Make in Odisha Conclave that it had attracted more than Rs 2.03 lakh crore investment and 1.40 lakh jobs.
"The faith reposed in my government and our policies will be taken forward with total commitment and sincerity. We will set up a special institutional mechanism to ensure timely grounding of these investments," Naveen had said.
