Malkangiri, Sep 2: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee Sunday claimed that the state had suffered a huge loss due to the NDA government's Rafale deal. Had the contract been done as per arrangements made during the UPA government, public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) would have played a major role, PCC president Niranjan Patnaik alleged. The Rafale jet fighter deal caused a loss of over Rs 42,000 crore to the country, PCC president Niranjan Patnaik alleged at Chitrakonda in the tribal dominated Malkangiri district. The Congress has repeatedly alleged a "scam" in the purchase of Rafale fighter jets claiming the cost per aircraft in 2012 during the UPA regime was agreed at Rs 526.10 crore while the one signed by the Modi government costs Euro 7.5 billion (Rs 1,670.70 crore per aircraft).

At that time the aircraft would have been manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, a PSU, but now the defence offset contract went to a private company with zero experience of manufacturing fighter aircrafts, the party claimed. As many as 108 aircraft would have been manufactured in India by HAL and around 1,20,000 people of the country would have got employment opportunities, Patnaik claimed.

Referring to the HAL unit at Sunabeda in Odisha, he said around 40,000 people in the state would have been benefited with job opportunities. The PCC chief also came down heavily on the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha and alleged that there were financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 74 crore in construction of Gurupriya bridge over Janbai river in the Maoist-hit zone of Malkangiri district.

Huge funds were misappropriated by changing the initial project design and conditions of tender, he claimed and alleged that the state government is embroiled in many such irregularities in which huge amounts were swindled. The Congress leader said the bridge connecting the cut-off areas with the rest of the state was planned long ago when the Congress was in government in the state, but the project was delayed due to naxal problem. He said the entire credit for successful completion of the bridge which was inaugurated by the chief minister in July this year goes to the security forces. Both BJP and the ruling BJD rejected the allegations levelled by Niranjan Patnaik.

Odisha BJP General Secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said the Congress was indulging in spreading false campaign in an attempt to derive political gain.

He said the union Finance Minister has recently given a clear picture about the Rafale deal which showed that the Congress was trying to mislead people on the issue. BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra denied the allegation about irregularities in Gurupriya bridge project.

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