Union minister for Information and Broadcasting and Sports and Youth Affairs Anurag Thakur on Tuesday refrained from launching a direct attack on Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik even though the latter’s party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is the prime rival of the BJP in the state.

He targeted Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee-led government on Odisha soil by pointing out irregularities in the implementation of various government schemes including Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). He said no district of Bengal has 100 per cent water connections.

“The Centre asked the Mamata Banerjee government to take penal action against the guilty, but the Mamata government did not take action. The funds under MGNREGA have been stopped. The Centre has decided not to release MGNREGA money until the state takes action against the guilty,” Thakur said.

Thakur, who reached Bhubaneswar on Tuesday morning accompanied by Union minister for education, skill development and entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan, addressed a media conference at the party office.

On being asked about irregularities in the implementation of the MGNREGA in Odisha for which a notice was served to the state government by the Centre, Thakur seemed to be soft and said: “If the notice had been issued, they (Odisha government) must have responded to it. They must have taken action on it.”

On being asked about chief minister Naveen Patnaik terming the Opposition as anti-people and anti-development, Thakur said that the BJP has never been anti-development or anti-peopple. “Nearly 18 crore people have come out of the poverty line during the nine-year-old regime of Modi. We are working on the principle of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.”