Seeds of hatred are being sown in Orissa: Sonia

People must remain alert against divisive forces and maintain peace,brotherhood and unity to ensure progress,the UPA chairperson said.

Attacking the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD as well as its erstwhile ally BJP,Gandhi said they not only neglected development in Orissa,but also betrayed the people by breaking up their alliance on the eve of elections.

Farmers and the poor people were hit hard by the “faulty policies” of the state government which sold water to industries from the Hirakud reservoir and other sources without bothering about irrigation for agriculture,she said.

Gandhi also accused BJD-BJP of taking credit for the schemes initiated by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

Though Congress had started a scheme of selling rice at Rs 1.50 a kg in the state,these parties were trying to mislead people by claiming credit for it,she said.

Accusing the Naveen Patnaik government of utilising only 32 per cent of the central funds,the Congress president said whatever development had taken place during the last ten years in the state was because of central schemes and assistance.

Gandhi said Congress alone was capable of and sincere in working for the uplift of the poor,farmers,tribals,dalits and backward sections.

“therefore,Congress should be voted to power both at the Centre and in Orissa,” she said.

The UPA chairman accused the state government of making the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) defunct. “The Bargarh cement factory was sold at a throwaway price,” she said.

Among the other dignitaries present in the meet were Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad,union minister Santosh Bagrodia and OPCC chief K P Singhdeo.