Bhubaneswar, May 28: BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik today asked members of the Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) to counter the BJP's misinformation campaign against the government and the party.
Addressing the BJYD's executive committing meeting, Naveen, without naming the BJP, said: "There are many people and some parties actively indulging in misinformation campaign against us. It should be countered at every level. The party workers should tell people the truth."
Aware of the fact that the BJP is trying to win over the youth, Naveen said: "I have full faith in the youth of the party. We have prepared a youth policy. In the past thee years, we have created job opportunities for five lakh people. In the government sector, we have given appointments to 50,000 people. By 2025, we aim to cerate opportunities for 25 lakh jobs."
Naveen urged the young members to be "tech savvy" to connect with people of the state. "The members of the BJYD should actively involve in the 'Ama Gaon-Ama Vikash (Our Village and Our Development)'," he said.
In order to attract youths, the BJD today announced to enrol 20 lakh youths in the next one year.
Announcing the roadmap, the BJD's youth affairs general secretary Sanjay Das Burma said: "We will enrol the youths in our party and organise six major youth conventions across the state. The chief minister will attend all the conventions and address the youths."
He said: "We will launch the member enrolment programme from the booth level. Committees will be constituted at the booth, panchayat, block, municipalities and district levels."
To connect the party workers with governance, the BJD also announced that whenever a minister visits a district, he or she will invite the concerned district party unit president and discuss issues pertaining to the district.
According to the party programme, the first youth convention will be held on June 11 in Balasore. Later, similar conventions will be held at Berhampur on June 21, Sambalpur (July 2), Cuttack (July 9), Balangir (July 23) and Puri (July 30).
The executive committee meeting today passed four resolutions, which were later ratified by the party president.
"The Modi government is least interested in the development of the country. They announced two industrial corridors - from Amritsar to Calcutta and from Chennai to Visakhapatnam. Even though Odisha is full of natural resources, it did not find a place in these corridors. Besides, the demand for a special category state has been ignored. We will continue to protest such attitude of the Centre," Das Burma said, adding that the party would intensify its programme to get justice for Odisha.
According to the party's programme, the BYJD's district committees will be formed in the next 15 days, constituency and block-level committees in 30 days and panchayat-level committees in 45 days with the entire process to be completed by July.<>.
However, BJP vice-president Samir Mohanty said: "The youth power is with Narendra Modi. At the last moment, their attempt to connect with the youth will not yield any result."
