BJD skips new city rly station inauguration

Even as Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan dedicated a new railway station at Barang to the people of the city on Saturday, the State Transport Minister and local MLAs boycotted the event.

Though Transport Minister Nrusingha Sahu and MLAs Priyadarshi Mishra and Bijay Mohanty’s names were printed in the invitation card, they skipped the event. 

Later, speaking to mediapersons, State Culture and Tourism Minister Ashok Panda said the Central Government did not sign an MoU with the State Government about the railway station. Finally, no MoU was signed, he said.

Bhubaneswar (North) MLA Priyadarshi Mishra said the roof of the old railway station in the city is leaking bringing misery to passengers. But despite repeated complaints, the problem has not been fixed. Besides, the inauguration of the new station was done hurriedly without having the necessary infrastructure like approach road. This was to get political mileage.”

However, Union Minister Pradhan, who inaugurated the new station, said it would have been better if the BJD representatives had been present. If the State Government extends a helping hand, a number of welfare projects for the befit of the people of the State can be executed.

PCC president Niranjan Patnaik said the BJD leaders not attending the function is not a good tradition.

It might be mentioned that the BJD has also skipped the functions of several other projects implemented by the Central Government including an LPG bottling plant in Balangir.