Congress flag.
Credit: PTI Photo
Bhubaneswar: The Congress on Tuesday announced that the party would hold month-long demonstrations across Odisha over issues related to students and farmers.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Sarat Pattanayak said its student wing activists will stage protests in colleges and universities against setting up of selfie points in the institutes with photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the background.
National Students' Union of India (NSUI) will organise the demonstrations from December 20 to January 20, he said.
Similarly, the Pradesh Kisan Congress will organise protests across the state from December 13 to January 13 to press several demands of farmers, including a hike in minimum support price to Rs 2,930 per quintal in paddy and waiver of crop loans, the Congress leader said.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had recently asked universities and colleges across the country to set up selfie points at strategic locations on their campuses to raise awareness among youngsters about India’s achievements in various fields.
The BJD government in Odisha has also directed the institutes to open selfie points on the campuses with pictures of CM Naveen Patnaik, the Congress leader claimed.
"Both the BJP-led NDA government and the BJD dispensation in the state have made attempts to rewrite history. Forgetting the galaxy of tall leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subash Bose and Gopabandhu Das, the government is busy with self-promotion and mis-utilising public money," Pattanayak alleged.
The BJP had promised to provide employment to two crore youths every year while the BJD had announced that its government would provide jobs to 2 lakh youths a year, he said, adding that 'both the governments have failed to fulfil their promises'.
Stating that the BJD government in Odisha has also failed to provide quality higher education to the students during its 24-year rule, Pattanayak said students are deprived of basic facilities in higher education institutions.
Thousands of posts in the universities and colleges are lying vacant, he claimed.
"When an election approaches, the Naveen Patnaik government starts launching several programmes to attract college students towards the BJD. Once the election is over, they forget about the students and youths," he alleged.