One month after 24-year-old Naveen Patnaik government was voted out of power in Odisha with the Biju Janta Dal’s defeat in both assembly and Lok Sabha polls, BJP’s first Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who happens to be a tribal, entered his office on Thursday in the state secretariat renamed as Lok Seva Bhavan during the outgoing government.
Till now he was officiating from the state guest house in Bhubaneswar. Before entering Lok Seva Bhavan, he bowed down in front of the building where he received a grand welcome by his colleagues and top officials which was followed by Brahmin priests reciting hymns while he took chair in his chamber.
Majhi started working from the room in the third floor of the main secretariat building where earlier the chief ministers used to sit. There was a proposal to shift his room to adjacent cabinet room with the chief minister’s office room to be converted to his visitors’ room. Even the work had started. But that was shelved and Majhi decided to work from the original room meant for the chief minister. The only difference is that while his predecessors, including Naveen Patnaik, were sitting facing east Majhi sits facing north. Whether any Vastu advice is behind this change is not immediately known.
Majhi and other ministers took oath at a grand programme at Bhubaneswar’s Janta Maidan in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior central leaders of the BJP including party chief ministers in other states on June 12. Since then, Majhi has tried to develop a People’s Chief Minister image by being open to the public. Unlike Patnaik, who was not accessible Majhi started an open darbar from his temporary office in the state guest house.
He has also started meeting people in the chief minister’s grievances cell. Though the cell was functioning with officers, Majhi’s predecessor had last visited it in 2008. Majhi started his grievances cell on July 1 and it has been decided that each Monday he will listen to the grievances of people at the cell office in Bhubaneswar. When Majhi started the practice of hearing public grievances after a gap of 17 years, some of his colleagues including Deputy Chief Minister K.V. Singhdeo assisted him.
On the first day, as many as 1,540 complaints were registered. But more than 5,000 people thronged the grievances cell that day. The chief minister listened to the complaints of people and gave necessary directions for relief. On this occasion, Majhi said during previous government there was a barrier of iron between the people and government.
“Today, the iron wall has come down… and a direct communication between the people and the government has been established,” he said.
The chief minister said public grievances hearing has been resumed at district level on July 1 “listening to the people and trying to find a solution is an utmost priority in a democracy”. He hoped that complaints will be less at state level as people’s problems could be resolved at the district level. In the meantime, Majhi along with his two Deputy Chief Ministers Singhdeo and Pravati Parida had visited Delhi where they met Prime Minister Modi and other union ministers besides President Droupadi Murmu who is his next district neighbour in Odisha and both were together in the state assembly.
Majhi said in Delhi that PM Modi will launch Subhadra Yojana for women—which was part of BJP’s election manifesto—on September 17 in Odisha. He said the programme will be inaugurated on Modi’s birthday and the PM will visit Odisha to launch it.
The state has got a new Chief Secretary. Union Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja has joined as the new Chief Secretary as his predecessor Pradip Jena retired on June 30. Ahuja has six months to go as he is to retire by December end. If he is given an extension like his predecessor then he may get a reasonable period to work.
After officially assuming charge at Lok Seva Bhavan in Bhubaneswar, Majhi took a slew of decisions. He informed that all government work will be executed in Odia language. Though this decision was already there, it was hardly implemented. Majhi also said a commission will be formed for the promotion and preservation of Odia language.
“Apart from material development, emphasis will be given on cultural development. Importance will also be given towards promotion and preservation of Odia ‘asmita’. Odia language will be widely used in government work. If needed, the Odia Official Language Act will be amended,” said Majhi. He further said the Lalit Kala Academy will be reconstituted while a Translation Academy and an Odia Asmita Bhavan will be set up.
“Odishi Research Centre will be activated. Quality research on Odia Asmita will be encouraged. Efforts will be made to increase reading habits among people and the library movement will be widened. Efforts will be made for modern and simple use of technology in the field of language. A Language Commission will be set up. Odia Bhasha Pratisthan will be reconstituted. Samanwita Sanskruti Bhavan will be set up in each district. Art and culture of each district will be encouraged. Special consideration will be given for appointment of Odia teachers in high schools. Paika Academy work at Barunei near Khurda district headquarters town under which capital city of Bhubaneswar comes will be accelerated. Our government is committed to giving emphasis to various heritage sites,” said the chief minister.
Usually in a political system when a new government takes over it goes for complete overhaul. The new government has started moving in the line like renaming schemes of previous government or recasting old ones.’5 T’ was a popular term in previous government as the most powerful V.K.Pandian, an IAS officer-turned-BJD leader was associated with it. Within a few days of the new government coming to power, that has been dropped from government vocabulary. The LAccMI bus scheme (Location Accessible Multi-modal initiative) introduced by the previous government to have bus connectivity from gram panchayat to block headquarters has gone for a change by the new government. The colour of this bus has changed from green to orange in phases and it has been renamed as Mukhyamantri Bus Seva. Explaining this, Bibhuti Bhushan Jena, minister for Commerce and Transport,Steel and Mines, said no party symbol will be used in the service. Most importantly, buses will run from all blocks on the occasion of Lord Jagannath’s next car festival, he added.
As the table has turned and BJD has become the main opposition party in the state assembly, Naveen Patnaik is now the Leader of Opposition. He has instructed his party MPs in Rajya Sabha to act as ‘strong opposition’ which they did when nine members of party walked out of Rajya Sabha during PM Modi’s reply on the motion of thanks on President’s speech.
“In the larger interest of the state and the nation we, the BJD MPs, staged a walkout from Rajya Sabha during Hon’ble PM Narendra Modi’s reply on Motion of Thanks,” tweeted BJD MP Manas Mangraj. Out of the 10 seats from Odisha in Rajya Sabha, the BJD has nine members. The other member, Union Railway Minister Aswini Vaishnaw, is from BJP though he had gone to Rajya Sabha with BJD support last time again. But those were the honeymoon days between the two parties. Though he has gone to Rajya Sabha repeatedly twice because of the BJD support, Pandian recently said the land acquisition for rail lines had been delayed during the BJD rule. Of course, he said there will be investment of Rs. 1 lakh cr in rail sector in Odisha. Anyway, the BJD and the BJP are going to be main opponents as the trends show. The blame game has started from price rise to other issues like implementation of the BJP’s electoral promises. BJD has 51 MLAs against ruling BJP’s 78 and though the latter has added some independents, the former can be a strong opposition. Of course, Taraprasad Bahinipati, a senior legislator of Congress, has said the BJD cannot function as opposition because of baggage. So, the Congress will play that role with its increased strength. In the current assembly, the Congress has 14 MLAs against nine in the last assembly. Besides, the Congress has one MP in Lok Sabha while the BJD has zero.
