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When none but the Chief Minister is ruining democracy, media must have to come out of its own cocoon of avarice to stand with the people of Orissa, said eminent journalist Sampad Mohapatra, whom the people’s channel ‘Bada Khabar’ felicitated with ‘LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT’ award while celebrating its reemergence (Punarjanma) this evening. The auditorium of the Gita Govinda Sadan was jampacked to witness the event.
Former Minister and BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra, who felicitated Sampadababu on behalf of the channel, said that, anarchy has engulfed Orissa with the chief minister delegating his powers to an extraconstitutional person, which no law of the land ever countenances. The administrative system has collapsed, as is evident in members of bureaucracy dazzling like rulers and ministers appearing like mere minions in administration with secretaries ruling the roost in their respective departments, he said. He congratulated Bada Khabar over its resilience after the trauma it had to suffer in the hands of administration under concocted pleas. Earlier, while welcoming the audience and guests, the Channel’s founder and editor Sri Ardhendu Das had given an account of the trauma he had to suffer for standing with the common public against unprecedented misrule.
Bijay Patnaik, former chief secretary of Orissa and presently a Congress leader expressed deep anguish over decadence of democratic norms in the State and warned that, if pillars of democracy – Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and Press crumble like what is happening now, the people, who created for themselves the democracy, will not remain silent spectators for all times to come. Independent media like Bada Khabar will show the way, he said.
On this occasion, a marked conscious citizen Hemant Mohanty was chosen to represent the public on the dais. He congratulated Bada Khabar over it taking the side of the people and greeted Sampadbabu, who, to him, is a paragon of journalistic virtues.
The Channel felicitated all its journalists and team members for their solidarity with it during the days of gloom.