BK Hariprasad

Bhubaneswar, June 16: Ahead of the general elections, the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) today appointed B.K. Hariprasad at the helm of the party’s affairs in the state in the place of Jagdish Tytler.

Tribal leader Sushila Tiriya, however, has retained her post in the Congress Working Committee as its member.

Tytler’s days as the state Congress in-charge were numbered after AICC removed Niranajan Patnaik from the post of the president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee and appointed Jaydev Jena in his place.

While the AICC has realigned its focus on Odisha, the state Congress today criticised the BJD for misleading the people on alleged central negligence.

Addressing a news conference here today, Jena said according to the reports of the Centre for Budget and Accountability, Odisha has received the highest per capita central aid.

“Odisha has remained at the top in getting central assistance in comparison to other states. However, it has failed to utilise the huge funds it received from the government of India.”

Odisha got Rs 1,688 per capita assistance, while other Congress ruled states such as Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh got Rs 882, Rs 969, Rs 1,091, Rs 1,143 and Rs 1,333 per capita, respectively.

Jena accused the state government of surrendering central assistance worth more than Rs 21,000 crores in the last three years and demanded a white paper on the issue.

“The state government has surrendered Rs 7,001.46 crore, Rs 6,423.15 crore and Rs 8,439.58 crore during 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, respectively, for its inactiveness,” he said.

Jena also accused the state government of failing to implement the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

“The Comptroller and Auditor General has expressed concern and dissatisfaction on the working of the MGNREGS and the Indira Awas Yojana. The CBI has been inquiring into the alleged corruption in MGNREGS in six districts of the state,” he said.

Jena said the state government had failed to carry out development work and the New Delhi rally was a ploy to divert the attention of people from the deposit collection scam in which BJD ministers and legislators were involved.

On the other hand, panchayati raj minister Kalpataru Das said: “The Congress is trying to mislead the people on this issue. The Centre released the money towards the end of a fiscal, because of which it has become difficult to spend the money.”