Naveen Patnaik and Jaydev Jena

Bhubaneswar, July 15: The BJD today launched its state-wide agitation for special category state status while the Congress sought to make subsidised rice a campaign plank against the Naveen Patnaik government.

The principal Opposition party continued to lodge FIRs against the government at various police stations across the state accusing the BJD government of providing 10kg rice less than the centrally allocated quota of 35kg a month per family. The campaign, launched on July 11, will end on July 17 and the party aims to cover all police stations in the state.

In an attempt to influence public opinion against the Centre, the BJD launched its two-day relay hunger strike. Party workers at the block and urban body headquarters are staging relay hunger strike accusing the Centre of neglecting the state and ignoring its just demand for special category status.

On June 12, the ruling party had staged a rally in New Delhi on the issue and had presented a memorandum purportedly carrying one crore signatures to President Pranab Mukherjee in support of its demand.

“A month has already passed. But the Centre has not responded to our demand. This illustrates the Centre’s step-motherly attitude towards Odisha,” said BJD youth wing president Sanjay Das Burma.

Senior BJD leaders, legislators and youth wing activists today staged protest in front of the Bhubaneswar block office. BJD vice-president and panchayati raj minister Kalpataru Das said hunger strikes were held in more than 150 blocks across the state today and the agitations would be organised in the rest of the blocks and urban local bodies tomorrow.

Das claimed that the agitation programme had received public support.

On the other hand, Congress leaders described BJD’s move as a “ploy to divert public attention from its failures and misdeeds”.

Senior Congress leader Narasingh Mishra said that when BJD president Naveen Patnaik was a Union minister, he had boasted that the Centre would declare Odisha a special category state within six months. Subsequently, the BJD had promised special category state status in its 1999 and 2000 election manifestoes. Though the NDA was in power till 2004, this promise was not fulfilled.

“Having betrayed the people of Odisha and being terrified of a possible CBI inquiry into various scams, the BJD and its president has tried to find out a novel way to divert public attention,” said Mishra, adding that such political gimmicks would not yield any result.

The weeklong “FIR drive” of the Congress continued today. The Congress has planned to file FIRs against the BJD government accusing it of bungling the central rice quota. It said the state government was providing 10kg rice less than the centrally allocated quota of 35kg a month per family.

Pradesh Congress Committee president Jaydev Jena said the Naveen Patnaik government had panicked because of the “tremendous response” to the FIR campaign and had therefore raked up the special category state status issue.