Orissa Matters

Orissa’s top circulated daily, the Sambad, has made a five-column caption in its May 27 Bhubaneswar edition on how five thousand chairs in the Kalinga Stadium are rendered unusable because of heavy deposit of pigeon droppings on each of them, in the galleries.

When in 2011, thousands of valid ticket holders could not occupy their seats to witness Odissi Dance performance by record number of artists that launched the pride of Orissa into the Guinness Book of World Records, because of the filth deposited on the chairs, one of our esteemed readers, Ms. Aradhana Mishra had sent us pictures of the chairs heavily littered by the bird droppings.

That was to our pages on discussion on Odissi on 29 december 2011.

Sadly, no other media thought it prudent to highlight this harm to the stadium.

After six months thereof, Orissa’s most popular newspaper Sambad has made this issue the crux of the report on Kalinga Stadium.

We will fail in our duty if we fail to thank Ms. Mishra for having exposed this matter for the first time in our pages last year.

The government run by Naveen Patnaik is so full of filth that we cannot say for certain that the filth in the Kalinga Stadium would appear to it as alarming. But we are happy, that the issue which we had highlighted has started being reflected by mainstream print media in Orissa.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

In the 2009 election for Orissa Assembly, Returning Officers were used to reject the nomination papers of candidates that were seemingly disadvantageous to the ruling party.

In only these pages, this aspect is discussed in matter of Ranendra Pratap Swain in Athgarh as an instance.

Exposed only in orissamatters.com, – no other media had touched this point – the ruling party, after defeat of its conspiracy in even the Supreme Court, in the Court caused reelection, had to make Swain its candidate again to save its face and to keep the Constituency under its clutch, as Swain was certainly to win.

North Bhubaneswar is another instance where the Returning Officer “improperly and illegally rejected” the nomination papers of promising candidate Gyanendra Kumar Tripathy as a result of which the ruling party candidate Bhagirathi Badajena could bag the seat.

Tripathy preferred an Election Petition (Election Petition No.8 of 2009) in the High Court of Orissa. Badajena adopted dilatory tactics by filing objection to its maintainability, which the Court registered as a Misc. Case (Misc. Case No.6 of 2010) and once the Misc. Case was registered, took several adjournments, though he was legally required to prove his points sans any delay. Had he not played the dilatory tactics, the Misc. Case as well as the Election Case could have been decided in 2010.

Badajena had coined his Misc. Case on false and baseless pleas; but as there were points of law, the Court could not instantly reject his objection and posted the case to hear him. he did not cooperate and continued to seek adjournments as a result of which so vast time had to elapse in deciding the Misc.Case.

Justice Indrajit Mohanty ultimately heard the Misc. Case on 12 March 2012 and has delivered his judgment on 18 April 2012.

He has rejected the pleas of Badajena (the returned candiade) in a brilliant analysis of all the points of law he had raised and the baseless allegation he had made in attempt to mislead the Court. As for example, absence of an affidavit in Form No. 25 was made a point of objection to Tripathy’s case, claiming that Section 81(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and Rule 94 of Election Rules make such affidavit in this particular Form an unavoidable must for maintenance of an Election Case. But this Form is a must only if the election dispute is raised on the ground of “corrupt practices” and not otherwise. “On a careful reading” (Para 13 of the judgment) of the election petition the Court found that “there is no specific allegation of “corrupt practice” made by the election petitioner. Justice Mohanty has clearly mentioned, “I am of the considered view that since the election petitioner has not made any allegation of corrupt practice in his election petition, there is no requirement for him to make any affidavit in Form No.25 of Election Rules, 1961”.

So, on basis of factuality and in analysis of points of laws such as on animo attestendi and “substantial compliance” of the requirement of Section 81(3) of the 1951 Act, Justice Mohanty has rejected Badajena’s questions on maintainability of the Election Despute raised by Tripathy.

So, the hindrance willfully created by the returned candidate to decision on the election dispute has been appropriately removed by the High Court of Orissa.

Justice for Tripathy should no more be delayed. The Court should now follow the precedence it has created in Athgarh case. Yet, as there is no specific election bench of the Court, we apprehend, justice for Tripathy is far away.

In this context, we again put our emphasis on the need of separate and specific Election Bench to give justice to election petitioners that are victims of the mischiefs played by the Returning Officers and other players that endanger Democracy.

The left parties in Orissa have raised strong protests against the anti-people hike in petrol price.

The people are so angry over the hike that the parties that are
bedfellows of the profiteers are also making dramas of demonstration against the price rise.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The Air India should not have preferred contempt of court proceedings against its pilots in the Delhi High Court as it makes it a habitual litigant against its star employees. The Supreme Court has unambiguous rulings that the State/ Public sector should act as ideal employers and desist from dragging the employees to litigations.

When the pilots are in strike over issues relating to their career progression, it would have been better had the court not intervened and instead of ordering the pilots to join work, because their strike was causing “huge loss to the exchequer”, it could have ordered the Union Government and Air India to act as ideal employers in the light of the Supreme Court rulings and to proceed for settlement with the pilots.

Now when the Air India is so eager to settle the issue amicably with the pilots that civil aviation minister Ajit Singh has expressed readiness to reinstate all the 101 sacked pilots, it is clear that the authorities have understood their follies in creating the atmosphere of confrontation. They have precipitated the impasse by making the strike ‘illegal’ and by sacking 101 pilots on the flimsy ground of their strike being ‘illegal’.

The minister has declared, “I am ready to talk on all issues only after they join work, not before”. Why? What problem is there in talking the issues to usher in the end of the strike? The minister’s ego satisfaction is not more important than restoration of congenial fight environment.

The pilots should not be subjected to repressive steps that want them succumb to tactics of demoralization. Extinguishment of the strike through court orders should never be the choice in respect of the pilots. It is better to be appreciated that aircrafts are flown by the pilots, not by the courts or their orders. Pilots need peace of mind to concentrate on their job, which is as intricate as immensely responsible. Court verdicts cannot give them that peace.

If the minister is not capable of managing his portfolio properly, courts should not come to his rescue. The air passengers have the right to fly safely and so, the flight environment should never be endangered by putting pilots to demoralization.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Away from the country, I had missed the Press Release of Water Initiative Orissa (WIO), datelined Sambalpur, 13 May 2012, that had condemned misuse of “Fire Fighting Water Tanks” of the Fire Department of Orissa to cause artificial rain in Bhubaneswar Club compound for its members to dance under the drizzle when Bhubaneswar was reeling under unbearable heat wave.

WIO is a State level coalition of civil society organizations and activists including academia, which has been working on climate change, water and environment since around two decades.

Bhubaneswar Club is the elitist conglomerate of life enjoyers in Bhubaneswar, which, originally known as the IAS club, is not only a combine of IAS, IPS and other high-powered civil servants, but also by extension has become a place where commission agents find a moorage.

When WIO has expressed deep concern over the use of fire fighting vehicles for “water dance” of the elite in this club, senior journalist Prasanta Patnaik in his facebook page, relying upon a fire-brigrade source, has informed that, the water used for artificial rain in the club was not drinking water, but was drawn from the river Kathjori.

So it is confirmed that fire brigade vehicles, bound to be kept ready with water tanks for any eventuality of fire at any moment, were used to create artificial rain for “rain dance” of high-powered civil servants and their families and their relatives and the other men who mingle with them.

Prasanta babu says, “As far as I know, Bhubaneswar Club is organizing Rain Dance every year for over a decade in which Fire Brigade is being used to create artificial rains”.

He further says that “such vans are frequently used by film producers during shooting to create artificial rains” as and when necessary. “Colossal misuse of drinking water for construction purposes, water parks and swimming pools in clubs and hotels”is done through frire-fighting vehicles, allege the WIO.

But sadly, Orissa’s media is conspicuous by its silence over such misuse of fire-fighting vehicles and drinking water.

The issue involved is quite serious. The government should take immediate steps to put a permanent ban on use of fire fighting vehicles for enjoyment and pleasure of private persons as informed by the WIO. And, departmental action against whosoever in fire brigade had pressed the water tanks to create artificial rain in Bhubaneswar Club for satisfying wild urge of the elite, must be a must, if Naveen Patnaik’s Government has an iota of concern for administrative discipline.

Newspapers and electronic media of the State must rise to the occasion and repeatedely inform the general public about this felony. Silence of Press is this matter is a serious syndrome and needs immediate attention. Freedom of Press doesn’t give freedom to Press to keep the people in dark about administrative offenses perpitrated against them.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems to have developed a wrong notion that governance of Orissa in Oriya depends upon his mercy. His press-note of December 17 and full page display advertisement in major broadsheets of today force us to arrive at this apprehension.

In his December 17 press note it was declared that he had held a meeting with the five members of the ministerial committee on that day for the purpose of “strictly implementing the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954 in official and non-official level” to facilitate which a website has been floated by the government. In the full page multi-color advertisement in broadsheet dailies today, this is intriguingly missing.

The advertisement is designed to tell the people that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has taken historical steps to save and develop Oriya language, and has enumerated the steps he has taken. This is blatant lie. Neither he nor his government has executed any single item claimed to be “historical” in the official advertisement. The entire advertisement is nothing but false propaganda. What a shame it is, that, the people of Orissa are taken for granted by their Chief Minister! Read more →

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Legends are the most misguiding mischief aimed at superimposing lies on reality so that indigenous people of an occupied land are kept too dazzled to see the dark face of the rulers and the class of exploiters can keep its victims subjugated to its authority, while forcing them to forget the heroic history of evolution of their own philosophy of life, their own splendid spiritual realizations, their own socio-economic uniqueness, their own ancient culture, their own valorous past, their own way of social integration and their own civilization.

We see this mischief galore in the context of Navakalevara of SriJagannatha.

So, here, we are to rip apart the legends and bring the reality of the Navakalevara to light, as thereby alone we can reach the lost uniqueness of the people of Orissa.

We will use Puri Sankaracharya’s self-proclaimed authority over Navakalevara to proceed with our purpose.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The Oriya daily SAMAJA founded by late Utkalmani Pandit Gopabandhu Das, to which, out of their love and reverence for the great humanitarian leader, the people of Orissa had and have been giving their financial and moral support, is in a menacing maze of forgery and loot.

Sadly, two of Gopabandhu’s trusted men – Lingaraj Mishra and Radhanath Rath – who, because of being known so, had the opportunity of becoming cabinet ministers in Orissa, were the masterminds and/or makers of the forgery from which the paper is yet to be salvaged.

Both of them – Lingaraj and Radhanath – had partnered with each other in forging the last WILL of Gopabandhu to grab the Samaja, which being Gopabandhu’s paper was of superb credibility and the greatest political instrument of the day. They had performed this crime behind the screen of and in nexus with Servants of the People Society (SoPS), of which, while breathing his last, Gopabandhu was the Vice-President. Read more →