CPI supporters shout slogans during a rally in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. (PTI)

Bhubaneswar, April 5: The Communist Party of India (CPI) today went hammer and tongs at the Naveen Patnaik-led state government and accused it of favouring multinational companies involved in undermining the interest of common people.

Speaking at a rally here today, CPI national general secretary A.B. Bardhan criticised the state government and the ruling Biju Janata Dal for its anti-people policies.

Stating that the poorest people in the world live in the eight tribal districts of Orissa, he said: “This government has violated all rules and laws for multinational companies such as Posco and Vedanta. This has earned it condemnation of several committees, the Lokpal and the high court.”

Citing the state government as one run by officers, he said secretaries and directors had greater say in it while ministers and political representatives had no role.

He also criticised the government for providing rotten dal to students in their mid-day meal.

Apart from Bardhan, every other speaker attacked the state government for its flawed policies.

Addressing the rally, state secretary of the party Dibakar Nayak said tribals who had long been living on forestland were yet to get land patta.

“Like the below the poverty line list, old age and widow pension lists have not been updated. Several people living below the poverty line fail to benefit from these schemes,” said Nayak.

He also accused the government of not paying compensation to the farmers who had suffered huge crop loss. “The government has not prepared a list of these farmers,” he said and added.

“As labourers do not get any work here, the problem of migrant labour continues to persist.”

Alleging that the government was involved in a series of scams, the CPI leaders accused the government of illegally providing minerals, water and agricultural land to business giants at the cost of agriculture on which most of the people depend.

They also criticised the central government for their lopsided policies that had been affecting the nation’s poor. Before the meeting began, almost 2,000 CPI workers from different parts of the state marched from Master Canteen to the Mahatma Gandhi Marg.