TNI Bureau: The Odisha unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday staged demonstrations in all subdivisions of the state on the call of state president Manmohan Samal against liquor corruption and black money unearthed recently by the Income Tax Department.
The party alleged that there were reports of looting of Odisha’s mining and chit fund money by non-Odia businessmen, but now non-Odia liquor merchants are looting State.
The party said that it is shocking to see that the largest black money of the country is being seized in the state ruled by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who claims to be a champion of transparency. It is very unfortunate and shameful that corruption is being done under his nose.
The saffron party claimed that the local leaders are of the opinion that the BJD government has given the liquor business to certain “Sahu Brothers & Co” for 23 years without any option due to faulty liquor policy in Odisha.
While protesting in all the subdivisions against liquor corruption and black money, the BJP leaders and workers burnt the effigies of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Congress MP Dheeraj Sahu.
What is the relationship of “Sahu Brothers & Co” with BJD leaders? Was BJD election money kept with them? If not, for what purpose was the cash of around Rs 500 crore kept just before the election, they questioned.
The BJD government was protecting the illegal activities of Congress MP Dheeraj Sahu, who was very close to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and was also associated with him during the ‘Bharat Jod’ Yatra, the protesters said.
Both BJD and Congress help each other to loot Odisha. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving the guarantee to return the looted money to the common people, they said.
During its raid at different parts of Odisha, the Income Tax Department has seized a huge amount of black money to the tune of Rs 332 crore.