A heartening news is that eminent litterateur Manoj Das gave away ten lakh rupees he earned by working as editor of two journals published by a company nabbed as a chit fund outfit for cheating thousands of depositors of their hard-earned money. Das is eighty years old, but his mind is alert as that of a sharp twenty five-year-old ethical boy who considered money from a filthy company is not to be given away to a public agency. He did not steal the amount from the pool of deprived communities by masquerading as messiah the way many thieves run publicly-funded so-called nonprofit agencies only to lead a luxurious life. No wonder, not a single founder of any known voluntary organisation has hailed him as a demigod publicly for they would be identified as parasitical creatures themselves.
Incidentally, a ‘thug volunteer’ heading an NGO has just been picked by the Crime Branch for eating up poor people’s money. He is the brother of a former female Minister who is utterly confused as to how she should react to this development. The same former Minister had formally placed her brother as monitor to gauge quality of lentils, grains and other eatables during procurement to be used for meals at primary schools. The lentil scam surfaced in good time and the lady was forced to step down from her Ministerial chair; but the outcry against her was so focused that the people lost sight of the ‘lentil monitor’ who escaped the dragnet then.
There are disheartening developments too. The State Government, for all the wrong reasons and rhymes, is hyping the Puri Nabakalebar festival beyond public endurance. Interestingly, the very act of Nabakalebar (replacing old wooden bodies of the deities with new ones) is done absolutely away from public glare as per the religious rites. Even thirty-five of the major thirty-six sects of servitors are not allowed to be anywhere nearby, let alone see. The executor, a Daita servitor, is himself blindfolded; so he does everything by groping in dark. All the same, under the plea of the big festival, Puri has got a huge monetary grant to give the little, long-since messed-up coastal town a ‘face lift’. Planners, designers, engineers, contractors and politicians along with administrators are having a gala time being on a spending spree, not much question asked for the big hurry. Spending is nearly on a ‘get a baby conceived-n-produced in seven days’ mode. Consequently, Puri has turned a ‘model hell on earth’ today with pits, trenches, excessively raised garbage-quality roads, dug-n-buried drains, a most horrible sewerage system begun a decade ago but never to be finished, and, above all, hundreds of illegally promoted shops on roads eating into the traffic space to cause everyday accidents. lately, the Green Tribunal-inspired PKDA has ordered demolition of 215 errant hotels that have brazenly flouted all norms to make money- particularly by having constructed structures on more area and rising higher than permissible and more unforgivably letting out filthiest sewer effluents into the sea across public roads.
Senior public official Aravind Padhee, who did so much to reform the temple administration, has now been shunted out, rather unceremoniously. The Southern Division RDC has replaced him. lord knows how he can shuttle between Brahmapur and Puri to perform. Arvind had worked hard with the Gajapati-headed committee to have the chariot-climbing ladders permanently removed by a ruling of the Jagadguru Shankaracharya, unruly and greedy servitors put under control, and initiated the process of having the sealed treasure vaults opened and the valuables assessed and safely kept away. The only inefficiency he displayed was in failing to display arrogance and harsh behaviour. Suresh Mohapatra, a seasoned civil servant, has been dumped on the scene as ‘Officer on Special Duty’ which would often mean, in administrative parlance, somebody without any specific responsibility except engaging in a spying and backbiting job. More painfully, the servitors keep demanding compensation for loss due to devotee-friendly administrative steps taken. There is no rule or convention for ‘loss compensation’ as there is no profit-loss concept in the servitors’ entitlement as mentioned in the age-old record of rights.
So, Puri, though lately considered the face of Odisha, is suffering at the hands of insensible officials misguiding the executive to commit grave errors to cause irreparable damage to life and property by enticing a bigger congregation than one and a half million pilgrims and tourists on a single day. The achievements under such arrangement would include superbly innovative pick-pocketing, snatching, physical assault of all kinds, and, above all most terrible traffic chaos. Further, the beach would enter the Guinness Book of Records for having turned the ‘largest open air defecation ground’ never to be cleaned for months. The only silver lining in the whole deal is the four-laning of NH 203 and doubling of the rail tracks for quicker transport and travel. Arvind’s departure has caused shock among the thinking people.
Odisha is experiencing amusing events elsewhere too. Former top cop Ashok Sahu who could not snatch a ticket to fight the Kandhamal byelection has exploded like crazy around the fire-cracker festival time. But some BJP insiders say he has a point. According to Sahu, president Kanak Vardhan, Manmohan Samal and Samir Dey are filthy corrupt. It is of course a fact that KV had misused discretionary quota authority to dole out plots in CDA and BDA even to judges, the same way as Samir Dey for which Naveen Patnaik had warned him while the coalition was live. Sahu is not wrong in saying a BJD-discarded element like Rudra Madhab Ray should not have been fielded against a royal family member with public sympathy and incalculable BJD funds backup. The fight was like that between a lion and a rat. In all probability, the BJP national executive will take note of the situation soon enough to resolve the infighting issue.
Bad news is not over. People are sore with the BJD high command for no action being taken against father MP Kalpataru and son MlA Balbantray for the Ghangapatna land grab. Strangely, Kalpataru has been permitted to hold a huge rally in his constituency as if he were a saint. Similarly, Mayurbhanj MP Ramchandra Hansda was caught red-handed with 2 million rupees in his own house. First, he said, “My money.” But when the heat mounted, he changed version to, “Not my money, gift from loving supporters.” That is enough bungling to nab him. But he is roaming the streets fearlessly. The local voters should hold him captive and toss to the authorities for some sweet treatment. Sanjay Dasburma, the perpetually controversial BJD spy with several scams on back, is still occupying his elevated chair. He and wife have been found to be in possession of two voter identity cards each, which is a bigger crime for an elected lawmaker. But the BJD regime, believably run by bureaucracy, is unmoved by the constant public outcry against misrule.
The Modi Government is making waves without doubt. But the three nondescript names of Indians with black money stashed on offshore locations have not caused any mass excitement. They are all wealth generators having taken risk to set up businesses, employ the needy and make profits. The only crime is evading taxes. The ordinary Indian is much keener to know the details about the politicians and public officials who have stolen huge public money by guile and through bribe. They don’t take risks to generate wealth; they don’t give employment to people for livelihood; they don’t suffer humiliation in case of loss or business failure. It is of course very shameful that Mukesh Ambani lives in a 7000-crore-rupee house when the average Indian finds it difficult to organise a square meal a day. But no person of substance including from the media community has ever said a word of disapproval of the hurting act. Thank God, the social media is vociferous about it, though due to wonderful technology.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)