At 41 per cent, Odisha’s unemployment rate is the highest in the country, says the Congress chief.
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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be thrown out of power by people in 2024 and the NDA headed by Modi will struggle to bag 200 seats, saying that “it’s the people who are fighting against Modi’s misrule.”
Addressing a press conference here, Kharge exuded confidence that INDIA bloc will win the required seats to get the majority and form the Government at the Centre.
PM Modi is always claiming 400 plus seats as a part of poll strategy, he said, pointing out that winning 200 seats on his part does not appear practicable given the fact that it has fared badly in southern States, including in Karnataka, where they had almost made a clean sweep.
“You (PM Modi) are nowhere in sight in South India. In the rest of India, their seats will come down by half. People are fighting against Modi. BJP will not form the Government at the Centre. It will struggle to secure 200 seats,” he asserted.
Kharge further said that the INDIA bloc will double the quantity of free rations provided by the BJP-led NDA government to the poor if voted to power at the Centre.
The Congress party and INDIA Bloc’s fight is for saving democracy and India’s constitution and unifying the country. Our (INDIA bloc’s) electoral fight is against the division in society by hate speech, he said.
The Congress Chief blamed both the BJD and Modi government for the massive unemployment, price rise and inflation in the State.
“In Odisha, there is massive unemployment, unregulated price rise, and inflation. Odisha has got a dubious identity of being a supply of cheap labour. And these people have made this. Here there are large natural resources which are exported to industries located outside To create employment, we have to change the Central and State governments.”
Chit fund and mining scams have given the BJD government the image of a corrupt government. There is 41 per cent unemployment in Odisha as per the International Labour Organization (ILO) report, which is the highest in the country. The BJP is also equally responsible for it. The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and BJP-led Centre played the role in damaging Odisha economically, he said.
Mining and other natural resources are being looted in Odisha. Whatever big projects and industries were set up was prior to BJD coming to power during the Congress Governments, he said.
We introduced the food security act, launched MNREGA and the right to education act in UPA governments. They (BJP) did nothing but demonetization. If truckloads of cash are being transported by Adani-Ambani, what PM Modi is doing? Has the corruption and stashing of black money been put to an end by the Modi Government, Kharge questioned.