New Delhi: With the Lok Sabha elections approaching, Minister of State for Statistics & Programme Implementation Srikant Kumar Jena on Monday asked the Odisha government not to politicise the post-Phailin relief operations.
"My request to the Odisha government is that since the elections are approaching therefore the relief work should not be politicised and it should be done in a transparent manner," Jena told reporters here.
The minister also informed of writing to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to call all-party meeting to maintain transparency in the ongoing relief works.
"I have written to Odisha Chief Minister to call all-party meet so that political parties can also work in a way and transparency is maintained in the ongoing relief works," he said.
Jena said that he has also written to all the MPs to contribute from their fund MPLAD (Member of Parliament Local Area Development) to help the state fight the aftermath of Phailin.
He said Rs 1,000 crore has already been given to Odisha as a Central assistance and after getting report of a Central team visiting the state, further assistance will be provided.
However, he accused the state government for not providing the relief work to the affected areas.
"The state government did a great job with the evacuation of people. I don`t want to comment on that. But with the distribution of relief they have failed to act properly."
He alleged the state government was not ready to provide the affected people with immediate relief required at that point of time.
"People complained this when I visited different places in the state. And I know areas where there was absolutely no cyclone impact but still brought into book.. So the actual areas has been ignored."
