Mohan Charan Majhi, Bharatiya Janta Party’s first Chief Minister in Odisha, a tribal by birth, is quietly trying to be a people’s CM as he has met more than one lakh people in the first five days of taking over the state’s reign.
Perhaps it is an intelligent and simple way of countering the pervading aura of an illustrious predecessor Naveen Patnaik, the Doon school-educated, second longest-serving chief minister of the country. Patnaik is drawing unprecedented sympathy after his party's unexpected defeat in the assembly election, mostly due to the faulty projection of his close aide and Tamil Nadu-born former IAS officer V.K.Pandian as BJD leader.
While Patnaik was hardly accessible, even to BJD leaders including ministers, MLAs and MPs, the new CM, hailing from a humble background from the tribal district of Keonjhar in north Odisha, has been meeting the public at the state guest house in Bhubaneswar, where he is functioning now from his temporary office. Patnaik had stopped visiting his office in Lok Seva Bhavan, formerly known as the state secretariat since Covid.
The chief minister’s office in a statement said Majhi has engaged directly with nearly 1 lakh citizens including women, children and disabled individuals after assuming office on June 12.
Speaking to reporters, the Chief Minister said, “With the blessings of Lord Jagannath and 4.5 crore people of Odisha, I have been given the responsibility to serve them and work for the development of the state. People are waiting in queue to meet me since 6am, though I had scheduled to meet them only at 3 pm." He added the previous government failed to carry out development activities as per the needs of the time, which led to people voting the BJP to power. Saying that he comes from an ordinary family, the chief minister affirmed his government’s commitment to serve the 4.5 crore people of Odisha. "With the cooperation of people, the BJP government will carry out development works within the next five years that will have huge impact," he asserted.
In the meantime, after a delay of three days, portfolios have been allocated to ministers. Chief Minister Majhi retained home, finance, general administration and public grievances. However, departments including water resources, information and public relations, planning and convergence are yet to be assigned to ministers in the cabinet. The cabinet has six more vacancies and some additions are expected soon.
From among two deputy chief ministers, K.V. Singh Deo has been given agriculture and farmers’ empowerment, energy and Pravati Parida has got women and child development, 'Mission Shakti' and tourism. Eight cabinet ministers and five ministers of state with independent charge have been allocated other departments.
The Odia Asmita (odia pride) factor raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders during the election against BJD was reminded by Majhi to his colleagues after the allocation of portfolios. He advised his colleagues to lead the development of the state, keeping in view the identity of Odia Asmita. He expressed hope that ministers will fulfil their responsibilities with commitment towards the development of Odisha and the welfare of the citizens of the state. He also expressed the hope that Odisha will develop as the number one state of the country with the optimum performance of new ministers.
In the first cabinet meeting, BJP’s election manifesto ‘Sankalpa Patra’ was accepted. As first decision of the cabinet, the CM and other ministers reached Puri and all four gates of Jagannath Temple were opened for the public, which was an election issue. After Covid, people were allowed to enter the temple only through the main ‘Lions gate’ and the other three gates were closed for public entry. Chief Minister said the devotees and visitors were facing difficulty due to the closure of three other gates of the 12th-century shrine. "This had created a gap between devotees and the All Mighty, and this gap will be bridged by the opening of four doors."
In the first cabinet meeting, the creation of a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore for the safety, security and beautification of the Puri temple was approved. The cabinet also decided to formulate a policy for farmers within 100 days to increase the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 3,100 per quintal.
Also, as per another election promise, the government will prepare guidelines to implement SUBHADRA yojana under which a cash voucher of Rs 50,000 will be given to each woman to empower them and improve their economic status. Chief Minister said concerned departments have been instructed to prepare guidelines within the next 100 days.
The new government is planning to make the release of the 17th instalment of PM-KISAN funds a big political event on June 18. As per a government order, Majhi will attend the PM-KISAN Utsav Diwas celebration in western Odisha’s Bargarh district. Paddy is the main produce in Bargarh. While Singh Deo will join the CM at Bargarh, other cabinet ministers and MPs will attend similar programmes in other districts.
It may be noted that after assuming charge as prime minister for the third time, Modi had signed the first file authorizing the release of 17th instalment of PM Kisan Nidhi.