Orissa Matters

Minister supports contravention of Orissa Official Language Act, his newspaper plays mischief!

Bhubaneswar Bureau
The newspaper of a minister of the Orissa – Sanchar – has kept its readers in dark about the unique Bhasa Andolan (Language Movement) of Orissa that demands for Governance of Orissa in Oriya language.

On the other hand, it has editorially attacked Sri Subhas Chandra Pattanayak, whose brainchild is this movement, in order to mislead the movement, when the minister has publicly argued that contravention of the Orissa Official Language Act, enacted and enforced in 1954 to ensure governance of Orissa in Oriya, is no offense.
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Tusharkanta’s lightly sent letter puts political parties in flutter

Bhubaneswar Bureau
Come July, Orissa shall send three members to the upper house of the Parliament against vacancies created by its retiring representatives.

The political animals have already started wagging their tails to please their masters on whose mercy their candidature would depend. It was disgusting to many when BJD MP Baishnab Ch. Parida met the CM’s private Secretary, an IAS officer, Sri V.K.Pandian and sought his blessings for a second term nomination. If Pandian is pleased, the “supremo” of BJD would find it difficult to say him ‘No’, he believes.

Orissa has many such fellows in Rajya Sabha whose performances are so very poor that, had they not been in the upper house, the State could have escaped the ignominy of being represented through carpet-baggers.

A tireless conscience keeper of the State, former Banker Tusarkanta Satpathy has issued a letter to the ruling party and two other major parties to nominate him, if at all they are going to nominate befitting persons for the three Rajya Sabha seats. Instead of choosing political sophomores and sycophants, the candidates for the Rajya Sabha should be selected for nomination thorough proper screening of their education and orientation by an expert committee comprising wise persons, he has said.

“If I am nominated and sent to Rajya Sabha, I will not indulge in property accumulation; will sit in fast even on to death to bring in Special Status for the State; will donate all my salaries and allowances to CM;s Relief Fund; and will not allow a single pie of MPLAD fund spent beyond the purpose of the Fund”, he has informed.

People know that Tusarkanta Satpathy stands for honesty, integrity and probity. He possesses a brilliant mind as his write-ups are regularly coming out in almost all the newspapers of the State dealing with intricate and urgent public issues, precisely and yet in utmost speaking manner.

His letter, though apparently lightly sent, has put the political parties in flutter, as now they are to say why somebody else, if they nominate anybody else, was preferred to Tusarkanta.

ORISSA MATTERS fully supports his suggestion that, selection to the House of the States (Rajya Sabha) should never be from the political sophomores and sycophants, but from the most deserving persons of the State through proper screening by a committee of experts drawn from people-related areas.

Orissa Minister supports contravention of Official Language Act to counter BHASA ANDOLAN

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The most peaceful and principled movement of the people of a State against the political government’s willful contravention of the most benevolent law of the land is being witnessed in Bhubaneswar for the first time in human history. It is Bhasa Andolan, Orissa, led by a well-knit team of dedicated language activists.

It commenced with an ultimatum delivered to the Chief Secretary of Orissa notifying the Government of the movement in advance. As per the ultimatum, the silent black-flag rally is continuing since April 13, 2016.

It is an experimentation of how silent protests can cause resounding effects if the issue is genuine and purpose pure.

Its effect has put the government in fidgets, which is found in senior most member of the cabinet Dr. Damodar Raut openly supporting the contravention of Orissa Official Language Act in order only to counter the Bhasa Andolan in a meeting at Cuttack on May 15.

He argued that, non-Oriya officers assigned to Orissa cadre by the central government cannot read or write in Oriya and hence imposition of Oriya as a must in administration would be wrong. He, however, showed no courage to reflect on his chief minister, who, despite being in power for around 17 years, has not learned to read and write in Oriya, as a result of which, people are perishing under non-Oriya rule.

Bhasa Andolan has only two demands: (1) Amend the Act and adopt the Rules as proposed by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak as a member of the Ministerial Committee; (2) Repeal the amendment done to the Act in 1963 that revived English as an official language in Orissa in addition to Oriya, which has rendered the Act of 1954 inconsequential.

Dr. Raut was intriguingly silent on these demands.

Had the creators of the Orissa Official Language Act not thought of the point raised by Dr. Raut? Before going to this question, let us first know as to why the Act was necessary.

Historical background

The British had no courage to attack Orissa till annexing all other regions of India.

They knew that, even to Asoka, the terror of Magadha, who had claimed to have conquered this land at Dhauligiri battlefield, had not only to discard the Brahmanya Dharma to get converted to Buddhism, but also had declared that the people of this province were unconquerable.

They also knew, when Muslims had dared to attack Orissa, they were so severely thrashed that, even the Muslim historian Minhaj-I- Siraj, who was witness to the battle, being in the Muslim Army, had to admit, “A greater disaster had not till then befallen the Muslims in any part of Hindustan” (The History of Bengal, Muslim Period, pp.48-52).

However, under the constant impact of the socio-philosophic battle between Brahminism and Buddhism, when Chaitanya had flourished under the guidance of Raya Ramananda Pattanayak and the patronage of Gajapati Prataprudra Dev, as the people of Orissa had somewhat shunned the swords, the British had dared to put their filthy feet on the sacred soil of Orissa. But no sooner than they grabbed the Orissa Gajapati’s estate through tricks, the valorous Oriyas raised their swords against the British to oust them from their territory. In “A sketch of the History of Orissa”, the British historian G. Toynbee writes, “It was not long, however, before we had to encounter a storm which burst with so sudden fury as to threaten our expulsion, if not from the whole of Orissa, at least from the territory of Khurda”.

The British tried its best to suppress this first freedom movement of India by using its advance military force and police. But failed.

It transpires from Para 18 of Magistrate W. Forrester’s report to Commissioner Robert Ker, dat5ed 9.9.1818 that, he was afraid, “The nature of the country (Orissa) and the disposition of the inhabitants will always present formidable obstacle to the suppression of these disturbances either by military or by police”.

This long history of heroic habit and valor had led to sectionalization of our motherland where Oriya was the mother tongue, by the British that could gain recognition of the people of Orissa as the Government by virtue of the treaty signed with Buxi Jagabandhu, Orissa’s General. The British not only divided our compact soil into parts, but also clubbed each part in neighboring rival provinces in the guise of its smooth administration, where the Oriya people became linguistic minorities. We perished as our language was denied official use in administration of those provinces.

So, we woke up as a whole to save our mother tongue from the rival lingual assault and this metamorphosed to a historic and incomparable linguistic movement, as a result of which our motherland Orissa emerged as the first linguistic State of India in the present geographical shape in 1936.

Thus, if Orissa is created, it is created by Oriya language and therefore, it must be governed in Oriya.

This resolution was moved in Orissa’s interim Assembly while celebrating the first Utkal Divas in independent India on April 1, 1948. Though the author of this resolution Pt. Laxminarayan Mishra had to withdraw it under official pressure, its undying dream had inspired the first Chief Minister of Orissa, Nabakrushna Chowdhury to create the Orissa Official Language Act in 1954 stipulating that Oriya shall be the language for all and any official purpose in the State of Orissa.

Legislative Intention was to end Non-Oriya rule

The legislative intention of the O.O.L. Act was to end the role of non-Oriya language in governance of Orissa. The Opposition had not only totally supported the Act, but also had made it clear that non-Oriya rule shall not be tolerated. For just a reference, I will cite Hon’ble Pratap Keshari Deo, the legendary Opposition heavyweight, who was representing Junagarh of Kalahandi district.

In total support to the Official Language Bill, he had called upon non-Oriya officers and business operators to learn Oriya language properly and quickly or to get out of Orissa. “They must learn Oriya or else they will have to clear out”, he had declared (Orissa Assembly Debates, Vol.VI-No.4).

From the answer of Chief Minister Nabakrushna Chowdhury it transpires that the Government had granted a grace period of three years to the non-Oriya officers to learn and excel in Oriya language so that administration shall not suffer for their deficiency in Oriya. He had made it clear that whosoever officer shall fail to use Oriya proficiently and properly as official language, shall be punished (Ibid).

Subterfuge by Biju Patnaik

But before end of the grace period of three years, on 19.10.1956 Naba babu preferred to relinquish his office, partly because of personal reasons and mainly because of his disillusionment in politics marking the ever increasing imprudence in public life.The tricks the central government played to keep Sareikela and Kharsuan in Bihar despite they being the homes of Oriya speaking people, in order to please the then President Rajendra Prasad , had precipitated his decision to resign.

This suited the non-Oriyas most. Later when Biju Patnaik became the Chief Minister, they got their strongest ally in him.

Biju babu was not efficient in Oriya. He was eager to show himself as too elite to write in Oriya. The Act was the hindrance. So, he invented a way to hoodwink the people and render the Act inconsequential. Accordingly, he brought in the first amendment to the Act in 1963, taking advantage of a step taken by the central government to please the anti-Hindi campaigner of South India.

This amendment is Act 18 of 1963. It inserted a new section (Sec. 3-A) in to the Act of 1954 to continue with English in addition to Oriya in transaction of the business in the Legislative Assembly of Orissa, even after the 26th day of January 1965, the maximum period granted by the Constitution for replacement of English with the language of the people. It reads, “Notwithstanding the expiration of the period of fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution of India, the English language may, as from 26th day of January 1965, continue to be used, in addition to Oriya for the transaction of business in Legislature of the State of Orissa”.

When, thus, this amendment was relevant only to the business of the Legislature, the ministers and the mandarins have arbitrarily subjected the entire business of governance to English Language. This is blatant contravention of the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954.

Dr. Damodar Raut, the most prominent member of the cabinet, supports this contravention!

Oriya Language Movement is Movement for Orissa’s Emancipation

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

I can say for sure that, Orissa’s emancipation lies in the success of the Silent Black-Flag Rally, which is going on for last one month at Bhubaneswar demanding stoppage of official contravention of Orissa Official Language Act, 1954 and for necessary amendments to the Act to remove all obstacles from implementation thereof in keeping with the dreams of founding fathers of the State.

As a member of the Ministerial Committee, I had located the lacunae in the Act and given the drafts for its amendment and Rules to drive it ahead. The Chief Minister played tricks, as in my proposal and the draft of the proposed amendment, I had made provisions for punishment to whosoever contravenes the Act, vesting the power of prosecution even in the general public.

CM Naveen Patnaik, despite having told the Assembly on December 14, 2015, to bring in the amendment, dramatically drifted away and on December 17, 2015, took mischievous steps to render the Committee inconsequential. I had to invoke my tested method of social movement – The Silent Black Flag Rally – to wake up the sleeping masses to the great danger the official mischief has exposed our “fine race” (Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, Feb.18,1920) to, which, as is being witnessed by all in Orissa, is creating discernible impact.

Silent Black Flag Rally as a Social Weapon

I had invented and used this method as a powerful weapon of social movement long back in the early 1980s.

When Sri Janaki Ballav Patnaik was the Chief Minister, my own place Tigiria and Athgarh, from where he had come to Assembly by way of bi-election to retain his Chair, had plunged into rampant corruption and political favoritism in every sphere of administration. In his presence, at the time of filing the nomination papers, his protege Basanta Biswal had declared that the moment the election result is declared and JB gets confirmed in his position, the Gopabandhu Science College established by the local people as a private College shall be taken over by the Government. Present on the spot, I had objected to this uncalled-for false promise, citing many senior private colleges, which, unless taken over, it would never be possible for the State to take it over. JB had intervened and declared that he would use the CM’s prerogative to do this. He did not. So, to make our people woke up to reality, I had to spend many days in deep cogitation.

Being a peace loving person by birth, I had studied Gandhiji’s method meticulously. Despite Communism being my creed, the Gandhian non-violence was the method of my preference for mass awakening. I mixed a tint of Malcolm X with the Mahatma and refurbished the same with the age-old wisdom of ancient Oriyas, learned from my father, which says, “DHIRA PANI PATHARA KATE” (a slow but regular flow of water can lacerate a strong stone). And, it had helped me invent a new method of public awakening by giving the people a shock treatment with a silent march from a specific point to a specific point at a particular time every day with a placard carrying the message of the movement and a flag of unusual color to attract people’s attention. The silent rally would be entirely nonviolent while the placard would be silently inducing the onlookers into the message of the mission, which would acquire more and more credibility day by day with the daily regular repetition. I had chosen the flag of black color deliberately for three reasons: firstly because, I, a native of ex-State Tigiria,born to the family of Rautaraya Pattanayak, have an emotional attachment to Black Flag, which my family hereditarily honors as the Flag of victory; secondly, the black color is generally perceived in Orissa as a color of fearlessness and thirdly, the supreme lord of Orissa SriJagannath, revered for having fought at Kanchi to rescue the mana of our people, is of the black color. So, the silent Black Flag campaign had worked perfectly and the all-powerful political set-up of those days had to bend to a discernible extent.

After extinguishing people’s fear for power, I had left Athgarh in pursuit of my profession, as Orissa High Court had directed me to join my job as a journalist, which I had lost under the Emergency, being a sharp reporter against blatant misrule.

This method is now guiding the unique Black Flag campaign, we, in Bhasha Andolan, are leading for our mother tongue.

Our mother tongue Oriya is the creator of our province called Orissa.

Our founding fathers had fought against all odds and had succeeded in creating this State only for the purpose of the conductance of every official work in Oriya.

This purpose is lost, as we are being administered in English in total violation of Orissa Official Language Act, created and promulgated by the first elected Assembly of our State.

I had found that nobody was honoring the Act, as there was no provision of punishment for violation thereof. Therefore, as a member of the Ministerial Committee on working of the Act, I had suggested that, stringent penal action be provided for against contravention thereof and had also equipped my suggestion with drafts of amendment of the Act and a set of Rules for administration of the Act.

I have not left the power of prosecution at the mercy of the officials reluctant to work in Oriya. Under Sub-Rule (i) of Rule 11, I have provided for a legal apparatus in the following words: There shall be a Committee consisting of three members to be constituted by the Chief Secretary of Odisha, of which, the Principal Secretary in charge of the department of Culture shall be the ex-officio Chairman, a judicial officer of the State not below the rank of an Assistant Sessions Judge and an educationist in the field of Odia language not below the rank of a Professor of any University of Odisha shall be the members. The Committee shall the named as the Language Committee, Odisha.

Power to initiate the prosecution is given to every Oriya under Sub-Rule (ii) of this Rule in the following words: The Committee shall, on the complaint of any person or institution, or suo motu , take up matters of violation of the provisions of the Act or these Rules for adjudication and decide the same by majority of opinion, keeping in view the principles of natural justice.

The Silent Black Flag Rally, now known as Bhasha Andolan, is espousing this my proposed legislation. Its success will emancipate Orissa, because, every Oriya would be equipped with the necessary legal power to initiate prosecution against any functionary that indulges in defeating the very purpose for which Orissa was created. The Oriya race shall not suffer the ignominy of being administered in English to have the freedom from which our State had given so many martyrs including the youngest martyr in Baji Raut to India.

But sadly, the Chief Minister is hand-in-glove with a gang of non-Oriya IAS officers who have been trying to defeat our campaign for the suggested amendment of the Act. We shall have to defeat their evil design and to ensure that our movement succeeds; because, this movement is a movement for Orissa’s emancipation.

(Updated by the author with the necessary input)

MCL NBCC joint misconduct seeking legitimacy through BDA

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

ORISSA MATTERS, on April 7, 2016, had focused on a scam on the anvil involving central government undertaking MCL and Bhubaneswar Development Authority. Post-exposure shenanigans suggest that the scam would be a stupendous instance of how corruption wins.

The Civil and Finance department of the MCL has released the payment to their contractor against an unauthorized and illegal construction in Bhubaneswar, which, under the rules, the BDA is required to demolish. Therefore, fellows, who were marked chasing the concerned file in the Secretariat, are seen twanging around the BDA Secretary and the Minister concerned.

Let us look a little at what has happened.

MCL obtained lease of a huge patch of land comprising 30 acres at Tamando, Bhubaneswar from the Revenue department of Orissa Government for the specific purpose of building its Office and has used the same land for a different purpose styled ‘Mahanadi Institute of Natural Research & Energy Management’(MINREM), which tantamount to sub-leasing a leased property.

This is so glaringly illegal that, the audit wing of MCL has repeatedly questioned it. Audit has underlined that MINREM “is altogether a separate entity as society, though promoted by MCL” and and has queried as to “whether MCL is allowed by concerned department of Revenue to sublease the land to MINREM”. But MCL is failing to answer the query.

This makes it clear that the multi-crore worth housing complex of MINREM has been built in blatant contravention of law and authority.

Records reveal that, for this construction, MCL had signed MOU with another central government contractor: NBCC, wherein “it was specifically mentioned that, it is the responsibilities of NBCC to obtain approval for construction etc.”, but the same contractor NBCC has already received payment for the construction without the necessary plan approval and permission from BDA.

When MINREM “is altogether a separate entity as society” how could MLC sign the MOU with NBCC for its building is a conundrum. If MINREM is a separate entity, it should have obtained the lease from the government and then could have signed the MOU with NBCC. But, keeping MINREM in dark, the MCL has signed the MOU and given the work order to NBCC by jumbling up the accounts of MINREM. Under such vicious could of illegality, sans any authority or approval, NBCC has been order to work and has been paid for the work in blatant contravention of every norm.

For this illegal transaction, a particular officer of MCA, Dy. General Manager Abani Kanta Samantray is zeroed in by the vigilance wing of the organization and has been served with notice to reveal whether or not he has booked any Flat/House in NBCC or any other project either in his own name or in the name of any dependent including his spouse. And, if so, to say, “Whether the total numbers of such properties so booked/acquired have been declared in the Annual Property Return furnished to the Company”. Marked “top most priority”, in letter No. 762 dated 21.4.2016, the MCL notice has made it clear to Samantray, “The total number of such properties and their individual valuation need to be communicated to the Vigilance Secretariat”.

Possibly, Samantray has property link with NBCC in the name of his wife. Because, on 26.4.2016 the Dy. GM (Vig) / TS to CVC has asked him in notice number 786 to inform on “top most priority” basis “The total cost of the house property being acquired in the name of his wife in NBCC project”.

NBCC, a Government of India Navratna Enterprise under the Ministry of Urban Development, is listed with the Stock Exchanges, where, private profiteers operate under the public sector mask.

Posing as the government of India Navaratna Enterprise, it fetches work orders from Government Department(s)/ PSUs and Autonomous Bodies sans competition and executes the same through shadow operators, generating in the process many tricks of corruption which the shadow operators use for their profit.

The design is so cunningly developed, that, it “has been notified as a Public Works Organization (PWO) explicitly, a construction agency covered under revised Rule 126 (2) of GFRs, as per which Government Department(s)/ PSUs and Autonomous Bodies can award the works to NBCC on nomination basis”.

Using this trick, NBCC has obtained the multi-crore worth work order from MCL “on single nomination basis” and has “given the works to private companies”, which might have never got the work order on their own merit.

The Auditor says, this could have been “done directly by MCL” and huge sums of money could have been saved. On the other hand, high standard work, expected of the Navaratna Enterprise NBCC could have been obtained, for which only, the work was allotted to it “on single nomination basis”.

But, it seems, the MCL is saturated with fellows like Samantray whose conduct is being weighed by the vigilance on the matrix of Flat/House booked/acquired by him and/or his wife as the vigilance queries noted supra suggest.

It has become such a sanctuary of corrupt elements that its Board of Management has felt no qualms to dance to the tune of NBCC, the mask of shadow operators.

In the instant case, the Auditor notes, “LoA has been awarded to NBCC on single nomination basis and it has been approved in the 144th Board meeting” whereas “as per the Single Nomination definition laid by SC and CVC, it should be applicable only under exceptional circumstances such as emergency or natural calamity or after repetitive flouting of tender no bidders show interest or there is only one organization with license of product/proprietary item. Construction of MINREM doesn’t comply any of the above conditions and also not in the line of CIL letter and there is no such urgency”.

Pleading of MCL in support of its work order to NBCC is much murkier and driven by motive to make out a justification for the illegal allocation. NBCC being a PWO, the MCL has tried to justify its order on the basis of GFR 2005. The auditor has refused to accept the argument.

The audit para notes, “GFR 2005 is applicable to Ministries and Departments. As per GFR Rule 2, definition of ‘Department of Central Government’ means a ministry or a Department of the Central Government as notified from time to time and included the Planning Commission, the Department of Parliamentary Affairs, the President’s Secretariat, the Vice-President’s Secretariat, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Secretariat; MCL is a Corporate Body in which Central Government has share holding. It is not a Department or Ministry. ……. So the above justification for awarding tender (to NBCC) is not reasonable”.

When, thus, the allocation of work order to NBCC for construction of MINREM is inappropriate and illegal, the purpose of allocation is also defeated, as NBCC has not executed the work order by itself, but has done the work through private contractors who could never have qualified to get the order by participating in the bids.

But the most intriguing aspect of the MCL project at Bhubaneswar is that the building complex of MINREM has been completed and the contractor NBCC has been paid for the work without even submission of its plan to and approval thereof by the BDA.

In letter No. 160 dated 27.4.2016, much after the exposure of the scam in ORISSA MATTERS, the MCL has written to the contractor NBCC to “submit the plan” in respect of MINREM and “to include Guard Barrack and Club House in the plan so that approval of the plan with inclusion of the said infrastructure can be obtained and the work can be taken up”. Two days thereafter, on 29.4.2016, in letter No. 175 the MCL has requested the Planning Member of BDA “to kindly arrange to process the case for approval of the building plans for the subject works” whereas the subject is captioned, “Approval of Plan for construction of Mahanadi Institute of Coal Management Building (MINREM) over Revenue Plot No. 735(P) and 405 (P) under Khata No. P298 of Mz: Bijipur”.

Thus it is clear that the Plan of the building complex of MINREM at at Bhubaneswar on the plots above noted was neither submitted to, nor approved by the BDA till 27.4.2016.

But the construction, as the above picture shows, is over and payment against the same has already been received by NBCC, the mask of shadow operators.

The entire matter is so very full of intriguing shenanigans and clandestine tricks that how shabbily the central government is functioning can be viewed for a case study.

However, under the BDA rules the entire structure should be demolished. If the BDA acts as per the rules, the irresponsible officials of MCL will have to be taken to task. The only escape root lies in gaining over the BDA officials and the minister concerned, who, if they so agree, may give post facto approval, though it would be a stupendous instance of how corruption wins.