Bhupindar and ‘Kohinoor’
Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab was instrumental in the construction of the Golden Temple of Amritsar. He donated thousand tons of gold from the treasury to build the temple. The wealthiest king of his time, he had made up his mind to donate the costliest diamond ‘Kohinoor’ to lord Jagannath as he thought it wise to keep this rarest of the rare variety diamond under the custody of the lord. Guru Nanak’s universal love and regards for lord Jagannath also acted as an incentive which prompted him to bequeath the property in the name of lord Jagannath. 10 years later his minor son Dilip Singh, who succeeded the king was baptized into Christianity by lord Dalhousie and the invaluable diamond was given to the East India Company at his behest. Bhupinder Singh, member of BJD in Rajya Sabha, placed this historical fact which dates back to 1839. This Kalahandi born Punjabi sportsman in the last phase of his Rajya Sabha term made this wonderful revelation and in the process, he must have earned the much eluded love and affection from the people of Odisha. But is this enough to please Chief Minister and party boss Naveen Patnaik to consider him again for Rajya SabhaIJ last time he was rewarded for his softness towards Naveen Patnaik as leader of the Opposition in the Assembly for which he was criticised to the extent of remaining in the pay roll of Patnaik. Will the Punjabi lobby, which allegedly made him the leader of the Opposition, work in Rajya Sabha election for a second termIJ Does the BJD high command owe him a full term nomination or ask him to wait for the next general electionIJ The grapevine has it that the turbanless sardar may bend before Patnaik for a ticket to his son from Narla Constituency replacing the uncouth tribal leader Dhaneswar Majhi.
Crocodile tears
Almost 30 years on, the then law Commission’s report which favoured more numbers of courts and judges must be gathering dust in a corner of the law Ministry. The report mentioned about the state of affairs of judiciary in those time with a caution for judicial reforms to take place in letter and spirit. In his articulation prior to his visit to Odisha, Justice Thakur harped more or less on the dotted line of the report and its relevance. His emotional expression regarding the judicial shortcomings stirred up the hornets’ nest among the fresh law graduates of the National School of law in its convocation at Cuttack as well as among the veteran lawyers of Odisha in the 100th anniversary of the Orissa High Court Circuit Bench. “Justice should not be sold, delayed or denied. All should get justice within a timeframe. These are the challenges and by a positive response people’s faith in judiciary can be restored,” he said. People’s faith in judiciary is shattered when an accused is refused bail for want of the required bail bond money or bailers and goes on languishing in jail. A large number of such cases have enhanced the rate of pendency in the court to around three crores. Justice Thakur pleaded for 70,000 judges which is an awesome figure for the Government to consider. But there is no other way out. If there is any then it is related to the ethics of the lawyers and the judges who cannot change overnight. The judiciary, if put on a reform mode, will certainly go through a visible change sooner than later. It is time we concentrated on inclusive reforms of the judiciary and plugged the loopholes there in.
Concern for storage space
FCI godowns are full with almost 60,000 tonnes of wheat meant for other States. The consumption ratio of rice and wheat being 85:15 in Odisha, the Centre goes on dumping wheat on a rice eating population. January, 2016 onwards supply of food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) of the Central Government is discriminated against the Odias, alleged the BJD. This is despite Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s promise to set it right. Paswan said a committee was being constituted to intervene and submit the report, and since Odisha’s demand is justified, nobody can overrule it. BJD doesn’t want to lose any opportunity as they are eager to take to streets against the Centre at drop of a hat. Knowing well that Odisha is a paddy surplus State what kind of warehousing or infrastructural facilities have been provided for storage of grainsIJ The Government which spends crores of rupees on ‘populist’ schemes like house for construction workers , old age pension and distributing freebies to members of their families from the Government treasury, why can’t they build godowns and cold storages to keep the stock of paddy, rice, potato, onion etc which are sold at skyrocketing price because of the hoarders and the middlemen. The farmers should be helped to get the remunerative price for his produce. It is time, schemes like subsidized rice at Re1 which has created a group of lethargic farmers and farm labourers wasting their time playing cards with the village folks, should be revisited and discontinued after implementation of the NFSA.
Topmost issue for RSP CEO
The Rourkela Steel Plant celebrated the National Materials Management Day recently. The significance of the day and role of materials management in an integrated steel plant like the RSP were discussed. That the plant is suffering today because of a plethora of reasons which are not under its control, was a point well taken. But corruption said to be one of the major reasons of RSP’s downfall, was perhaps not a subject of debate in the public domain. It is, therefore, necessary that the Chief Executive of the plant revisits those areas where corruption is rampant. One such area is the materials management department which symbolizes corruption. One Samantray who is the General Manager, marketing with his old SEFI connection, is said to be the kingpin of corruption in this area. It is surprising how this man was seen seated on the dais on that day rubbing shoulders with people like Chief Executive Aswin Kumar and others. Now his eyes are focused on the post of GM I/C materials management and marketing which will be vacant in July consequent on the retirement of the present incumbent. It is time, before such an unpleasant decision is imposed from the top, he should be shunted out to other department or to any other plant in SAIl. A ceramic engineer as he is, it is surprising how he has been allowed to head the marking wingIJ The lobby he has been making to grab this post should be nipped in the bud. And for that, the CEO has to be vigilant and punish all those who indulge in such nefarious designs.
(The writer, a public relations expert, is a functional editor of English weekly Kosal Horizon, email: baidyanathmishra123@rediffmail.com Cell: 94370 83025)