Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Squandering away Orissa’s rare natural wealth has remained the idiosyncrasy of Naveen Patnaik’s three-term-long administration.
Those who, without any suffering for the cause of the people or without any sacrifice for them, occupy ministerial berths in a pattern of inheritance or in the name of the father or the mother or as a reward from the boss for being loyal factotums, never bother about how unnecessary spending for their pleasure may ruin the State/Exchequer. In such cases, though in power as representatives of the people, the power-holders tend to imagine that they are born to rule. And, this syndrome ruins the public assets and exchequer like in Orissa where it has been done these years.
Proteges suggest that Naveen was thus far in an environment where he was unable to work freely. In the first two terms, he was under compulsion to keep the BJP pleased. In the third term former secretary of his father Pyari Mohan Mohapatra had architected his victory by salvaging his party from coalition with BJP and till finally parting ways, was the controller of administration. When Pyari withdrew his blanket, for a shocked Naveen, managing survival in the chair was so challenging that, he had no strength to act freely. Fellows like his secretary took advantage of that and in his own office, a super chief minister got grown out of a paid government servant. So, during the entire period of his three previous terms, Naveen had to depend on others, to be precise, from one super-CM to another and hence, had not a free hand to handle the affairs. But this time Sri Patnaik has come to power all by himself and hence, one should expect that he shall be in a position to impose discipline in administration. He may begin with why his ministers are not functioning in their respective offices in the Secretariat. They are not functioning, because their rooms are not ready.
He may enter into the Ministers’ corridors. The entrances look like this at the moment.
Why so? He may enter into a corridor and look into a suit of rooms where a minister should have been holding his office after oath taking.
Like in the picture below, he would see his own photo hanging on the wall. And, he would see the floor dug up, office table and furnitures absent and the entire office space full of debris.
What has happened? The ministers are taking reorientation training in squandering away public money for personal pleasure on being elevated from people’s representative to rulers of the people.
Naveen’s photo on the wall in the above picture is witness to the fact that the room was the office of a minister of his previous term and being the office of a minister, it was certainly most meticulously maintained a room with excellent marble tiled floors and costliest fittings. There was no problem for a minister to have his office there in the allotted room. But, if the representative is to act as a ruler, his room must be renovated to a more gorgeous condition, whatever that may cost to the exchequer. Floor tiles are to be changed, old furnitures to be replaced with new ones, and all the other fittings must be new.
The pictures below are of similar rooms.
Such squandering away of public money must be stopped.
Esteem visitors to this site would appreciate if the Chief Minister comes out from staying the preening prince of Bijudom and react to this exposure with samples of action taken against this reckless splurge.