BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) has decided to finalise candidates for the Zilla Parishad seats and distribute tickets on January 5 to change the practice of keeping the aspirants waiting till the last day. This was decided at a meeting of senior leaders presided over by OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik at the Congress Bhavan here on Wednesday. Leaders in-charge of districts have been asked to tour areas under their jurisdiction to get feedback from the local leaders about the winnability of different aspirants. Sources said the district presidents have been asked to recommend the list of candidates for the ZPs by January 3 and submit it to the OPCC. The party launched its poll campaign from the 126th foundation day celebrations here with the OPCC president calling upon the workers to go to the people with the issues of welfare schemes launched by the Centre and the large-scale corruption in the State Government. Addressing a function at the Congress Bhavan here to mark the occasion, Patnaik alleged that even though the Centre had provided thousands of crores of rupees under various schemes, an ‘inefficient’ State Government has not been able to utilise the funds. Alleging that the Central assistance is being ‘looted’ in the State, Patnaik said scams in the mining and coal sectors, implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), procurement of pulses for mid-day meal (MDM) scheme and sale of land belonging to Jagannath Temple have surfaced during the last 12 years. The Biju Janata Dal’s corruption has been exposed from the stand taken by the party in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the Lokpal bill, he said and asked the workers to try to cover every family in every village with these facts. Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Bhupinder Singh, former speaker Sarat Kar and former minister Matlub Ali criticised the State Government for its all-round failure.
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