BJP national president J.P. Nadda on Sunday released the party’s election manifesto for Odisha promising to work for the development of Puri Shree Jagannath Temple.
The document also promises financial assistance to women and youth, the development of industrial clusters and the filling up of vacant government jobs.
The party released its manifesto titled “Sankalp Patra” with the tagline “Modi Ki Guarantee”. The manifesto was released on a day when the Prime Minister is scheduled to reach the state for campaigning. Scheduled to arrive in Bhubaneswar in the night, the Prime Minister will attend election meetings at Berhampur and Nabarangpur on Monday.
Releasing the party manifesto, Nadda said: “We are fighting the polls to form a government in Odisha, not to sit in the Opposition. We are doing politics of development. For us, the manifesto is a very serious document.”
Aware that people’s psyche is attached to Jagannath, Nadda said: “We will ensure that the mutts removed during the Puri Parikrama project are fairly compensated and re-established.”
The BJD government is trying to project the Puri Parikrama project around the 12th century Shree Jagannath Temple as one of its biggest achievements. The BJD also accused the BJP of trying to stall the project. On the other hand, the BJP is trying to hammer it saying it destroyed thousand-year-old mutts around the shrine.
However, the ongoing mismanagement in the darshan of the deities has created a lot of resentment in the state. The BJP is trying to draw political benefit from this. It promises to open all four gates of the Puri Jagannath temple for the devotees if the party is voted to power. At present, devotees are entering the shrine through the main gate only.
It promises that all devotees coming to Puri will have a smooth darshan of the deities. “We will expedite the investigation of the missing key to the Ratna Bhandar of the Jagannath Temple, restore the auditing process of the Ratna Bhandar’s inventory and publish the report.”
Aware that women constitute the BJD’s vote bank, the BJP promises to launch the “Subhadra Yojana” under which every woman will receive a cash voucher of Rs 50,000 which can be encashed over two years. “We will create 25 lakh Lakpati Didis in Odisha by 2027. For this, we will create industrial clusters for every 500 SHGs,” the party said.
For the farmers, it promises to enhance the minimum support price for paddy procurement to Rs 3,100 per quintal. It also promises to improve the livelihood of weavers and set up three integrated textile parks in western Odisha.
Promising a complete implementation of Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana, the party said it would also go on a recruitment drive for 1.5 lakh vacant government posts and recruitment of 65,000 posts be completed in two years.
The party, which was annoyed with the Naveen Patnaik government for not implementing the Centre’s health scheme Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, said the scheme would be implemented in Odisha within 100 days of coming to power. It also promises Rs 5,000 annually to all tribal students, strengthen the health infrastructure, implement the PM-Surya Ghar-Muft Bijuli Yojana in Odisha, provide labourers in the unorganised sector with an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh.