We will win Bijepur by big margin: Naveen

BHUBANESWAR: AS campaign for Bijepur by-election is hotting up, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday exuded confidence that his party will win the election by a big margin.“We will be winning the Bijepur by-poll with good margin as our development works and welfare schemes will work for us,” the Chief Minister told mediapersons before leaving for New Delhi on a four-day visit.

With only nine days left for the by-poll, Naveen has decided to campaign for party candidate Rita Sahu in Gaisilet and Barpali blocks of the Assembly segment on February 19 and 21 respectively.Apart from the Chief Minister, the BJD has lined up several star campaigners, including five ministers, six MPs and 22 MLAs. The major attractions will be popular Odia cine actors Sidhanta Mohapatra, Anubhab Mohanty (both MPs), Muna Khan, Kuna Tripathy, Arindam Ray and Srimayee Mishra.

Voting for Bijepur by-poll is scheduled on February 24. The result would be declared on February 28.
 Earlier, the Chief Minister had announced a series of sops for the voters of the Assembly constituency. Apart from announcing a `1,250 crore mega lift irrigation project in the area, the State Government had accorded Notified Area Council (NAC) status to Bijepur town.The irrigation project, named Gangadhar Meher Lift Canal System, is the first of its kind with underground pipeline-based irrigation system.

The Bijepur Lift Canal System will irrigate a gross command area of about 32,000 hectares,including 25,600 hectares in kharif and 7,000 hectares in rabi season. However, the State Government came in for severe criticism from the Opposition for not making provision for irrigation projects in the supplementary budget.

Besides, the State Government had also announced setting up of a sub-registrar office in the town which will serve the residents of at least 110 villages in the region.Offering best wishes to the people of  the State on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri, the Chief Minister said he is going to Delhi to attend a high level meeting on the upcoming men’s Hockey World Cup. Odisha will host the World Cup Hockey-2018 at Kalinga Stadium here from November 28 to December 16.

Chief Minister meets Prime Minister
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence. “It was just a courtesy call. We met for 20 minutes. I presented him the book ‘The Tall Man Biju Patnaik,’ a pictorial biography on Biju Babu. We discussed on Biju Babu for a while. There was no other discussion,” he told reporters after coming out of the PM’s residence. Responding to a query, Naveen said there was no discussion on Polavaram.