BJP MP from Bhubaneswar, Aparajita Sarangi, on Saturday targeted the Naveen Patnaik government over its poor performance in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) report which has ranked Odisha among the bottom five states of the country.

The report prepared by the Centre’s apex think tank Niti Aayog, that evaluates progress of states and Union Territories on various developmental parameters like economic growth, gender, health, education, climate change, environment and gender, was released on June 3.

“It speaks a lot about our model of governance,” said Sarangi, a former Odisha cadre IAS officer while posing five questions to the state government.

Addressing a news conference here, Sarangi said: “In the category of sustainable development goal 1 of zero poverty, Odisha ranks third from the bottom with 33.89 per cent of the state’s total population still under the national poverty line. The situation has not changed since 2019. It speaks a lot about the state of administration.”

The MP said that compared to 2019, the overall performance of the state government has deteriorated further. “It’s unfortunate and we should be ashamed of it,” she said.

Stating that employment under the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) has decreased while the crime rate has gone up in the state, she said: “The state government has failed to provide security to women. Crimes against women have gone up and harassment cases continue to rise,” she alleged.

She claimed that the state had fared badly in achieving the target of zero hunger with nearly 29 per cent of children below five years still malnourished and underweight. “What has the state government done for so many years to improve the status of the children and ensure the dignity of women? Has Mission Shakti failed? The government has miserably failed to safeguard the women of our state,” she said.

Hitting out at the government for its poor performance on the economic front, the MP said that Odisha ranked second from bottom among 28 states on economic growth in the Niti Aayog report. “The state secured a big zero as far as ease of doing business is concerned. This despite the government having organised much-touted programmes like Make in Odisha,” she said.

However, Biju Janata Dal Rajya Sabha member Amar Patnaik refuted the allegations made by Sarangi.

Patnaik told The Telegraph: “It’s an aspirational report. No one should indulge in politics over the issue. We are not talking about how other states like Uttar Pradesh are performing. People should go to the field to assess the ground reality.”

Patnaik pointed out the data provided by the state had not been taken into account while preparing the SDG report.

“In ease of doing business, the state has been shown to have achieved zero. How is that possible when Odisha has attracted FDI even more than Maharashtra last year? We are not critical of the report but there must be some error. Internet service has not reached many villages but the report states that 123 per cent Internet penetration has been achieved,” he said, adding that the report needs a relook.