BHUBANESWAR, March 16: The Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party today stepped up their campaign for the removal of J B Patnaik Government in Orissa by urging upon Governor K B Raghunath Reddy to advise the government to step down following the debacle of Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.In a statement, the leader of the opposition Ramakrushna Patnaik maintained that the people of the state have rejected the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls by defeating them in 106 assembly segments including that of 55 MLAs and 20 ministers including the chief minister himself.
Patnaik said that the Congress government headed by Patnaik had no moral right to prepare the speech of the governor and should not be allowed to do so.
The leader of the opposition alleged that the present disastrous financial condition of the state due to the mismanagement, financial indiscipline, rampant corruption and heavy loan burden have pushed the state to a debt trap. The total break down of law and order machinery and widescale starvation deaths substantiated by the report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have made the life of common people miserable, he added.
In a memorandum to the governor, the BJP legislators also urged him not to read the speech prepared by the Patnaik government which has lost the mandate of the people. The government which has failed in all fronts of administration was guilty of rampant corruption, misrule and total financial mismanagement, the memo added. Alleging that developmental works have come to a standstill, the memo added that there was complete deterioration of the law and order situation and the security of the people was threatened.
The memorandum claimed that since the people of Orissa have rejected the Congress and have given a mandate against it, the government headed by Patnaik has lost its moral and constitutional right to continue in power.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
