Baragarh: Giving an open challenge to the Odisha government over the Baragarh-Nuapada railway project, Railway Minister Aswini Vaishnaw on Sunday asked the State to acquire land for the project as early as possible, which would expedite the process.
“Give land tomorrow, the work would be commenced a day after. The responsibility of land acquisition is of the State government. If they (Odisha government) don’t provide us land, how can we make progress,” he asked, while addressing a rally seeking votes for BJP candidate Pradip Purohit in Padampur.
The Minister said that Odisha Minister Tukuni Sahoo had recently shot off a letter accusing Centre of doing nothing. MP Prasanna Acharya also backed her. “I don’t understand, why the minister and MP are telling lie? Their lie aims at misleading people,” Vaishnaw said.
Earlier, the State usually received Rs 800 crore. But Modi-led Central government has hiked the amount to Rs 10,000 crore for the development of railway infrastructure in the State, the minister added.
While canvassing for the party candidate, the Union Minister urged the people of Padampur to vote for Pradip Purohit who can only put pressure on the State government for all round development of the area.
