Bhubaneswar, Jan 7 (AHN) The Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday criticised Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi over his remarks at an event in Khordha earlier in the day, in which he alleged rampant corruption in the name of 5T schools during the previous government.

In a statement, the regional party said that the Chief Minister and his government were making such statements only to cover up their own failures. The party further alleged that the people of Odisha have now seen through what it described as the falsehoods being propagated by the Mohan Majhi-led government.

BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty on Wednesday said that in just 18 months of governance, the BJP-led state government has reached what he termed the peak of failure across all sectors. He alleged that the BJP came to power by making tall promises and by levelling false allegations of corruption against the previous government.

“However, the BJP government’s inefficiency and failures have now become an open secret. The government that promised to make Odisha number one has itself become number one in incompetence in the entire country. Even after allocations were made in the state budget, most departments have failed to spend more than 40 per cent of their allotted funds. Because of the government’s inconsistent and whimsical decisions, people across the state are suffering,” Mohanty said.

He also pointed to what he described as the BJP government’s failures on multiple fronts, including recent chaos over pollution certificate regulations, a decrease in Central government grants to the state, a significant drop in state revenue from both minor and major minerals, and a rise in incidents of crime against women.

Mohanty further claimed that even after 18 months in power, the BJP government has not been able to bring a single corruption case to light, yet continues to level what he called baseless allegations against the previous regime.

“On one hand, the Chief Minister accuses the earlier government of corruption in the name of 5T schools, but on the other hand, the same BJP government has officially acknowledged under the ‘Utkarsa Odisha’ industrial initiative that Odisha has strong institutional mechanisms like 5T to attract industries,” Mohanty said.

Alleging double standards on the part of the BJP government, Mohanty urged Chief Minister Majhi to refrain from making such allegations and instead focus on improving governance and administration in the state.