BUREAUCRACY IS PATNAIK GOVERNMENT’S DIEBACK DISEASE
Despite several reminders from the Centre, State Government is yet to submit Utilisation Certificate (UC) in respect of funds of over Rs107 crore it received for development of eight districts, collectively known as the KBK districts. This special assistance was provided by the Centre for infrastructure development in these backward districts. If the State Government doesn’t give UC, the Centre doesn’t release further funds. It is as simple as that. And it is logical too. But our obtuse Government doesn’t understand this simple thing. Again, it is only the tip of a huge iceberg. In damning reports, newspapers say that a whopping sum Rs21,000 crore of Central assistance is held up due to non-submission of UCs by the State. For the uninitiated and uninformed, the BJD characterises this as Central discrimination against the State. Believing its own hype, the Government, in a fake bravado, launched its very own Biju KBK plan as answer to the Centre’s so-called neglect. But the truth of the matter is our Government is unforgivably negligent in drawing Central funds by providing UCs for the funds it has already received. Playing fast and loose with reality of the situation is the signature tactics of the BJD Government. A vast armada of officers and clerks is deployed to prepare UC, but they simply while away their time in office. Naveen Patnaik is too laidback in his style of functioning to make these serried ranks of pen pushers work. Their calcified and painfully slow habit of working is the ailing heart of this Government. Howling like a banshee that the Centre is discriminating against Odisha is good optics before the elections but bad for the State’s development. During the UPA regime, the Congress party in the State was unable to call the BJD’s bluff because it was, and still is, in a nearly moribund condition. But in the NDA Government at the Centre we have two Ministers from the State who can expose the BJD’s trumped-up charges of Central negligence. The BJD has pulled wool over the people’s eyes by consistently howling that the Centre is not giving funds whereas the truth is it doesn’t give an account of the money it has already received. The more the BJP Ministers expose the BJD’s devious deceit the more they will succeed in demolishing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s carefully crafted image of a crusader against Central apathy. Only then Patnaik’s highfalutin wail of the Centre’s discrimination against the State will stop.
IN HIGH-PROFIlE CASES, CBI INVESTIGATION HAS GONE STONE COlD
The CBI investigation of the high-profile figures in the chit fund scam has gone stone cold, fuelling speculation that there is a political stitch-up between Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the BJP Government at the Centre. It is heard on the grapevine that as one hand washes the other, Patnaik will support the BJP Government when the Ordinances come up for voting in the Parliament and the latter will nudge the CBI to ease up on the former. The fact that the former DG of Police and Patnaik’s bête noire Prakash Mishra, widely expected to be CBI Director, failed to make the grade was an early indication that Patnaik has reached an understanding with the Modi Government. When BJP president Amit Shah refrained from rounding on Patnaik as the State leaders of the party had excitedly expected him to do, the speculation of a deal between the two gained wide currency. In such a situation, only the Supreme Court can whip the CBI into fast action. From its episodic investigation, it seems the ‘caged parrot’ can’t fly even if it is free.
SHORT-CHANGING ODISHA
Former Environment and Forest Minister of the UPA Government Jayanthi Natarajan’s explosive revelations have exposed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as a meddlesome busybody. She confirmed the long-running suspicion that Gandhi pressurised her to reject environmental clearance to Vedanta’s Rs30,000-crore aluminium project in the State. Citing wishy-washy reasons of protecting the culture and lifestyle of the Dongria Kondhs, she forced a fully functioning plant to close down. The entire industry was aghast to see a huge investment go down the drain. The rejection of environmental clearance dealt a death blow to investors’ sentiments under which it is still reeling. But the industry bodies were too pusillanimous to raise their voice against Manmohan Singh’s Government. Singh was also completely overshadowed by the all-powerful Rahul Gandhi, who was constantly breathing down his neck. Singh’s paralysing indecisiveness and gnawing insecurity emboldened Gandhi to take decisions as he fancied. Singh became a mere ventriloquist’s dummy in the latter part of his Premiership. He had lost the capacity to oppose Gandhi’s wayward thoughts about industrialisation and investment. From what Natarajan has revealed, it would have been a disaster for the country had Rahul Gandhi come to power in the last elections. Gandhi is actually a crypto-commie masquerading as a pro-business progressive. So far as Odisha is concerned, Gandhi singlehandedly halted its economic development by orchestrating from behind the death of Rs30,000-crore investment by Vedanta. Gandhi rejected investment and the people, in a sweet revenge, rejected him.
NHAI AND RAIlWAY ARE AS DEPENDABlE AS A PHIlANDERER
Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati is beavering away to ensure that the four-laning of the road and double-lining of the rail to Puri are completed well before the Nabakalebar in July. He has made several trips to Puri to check that the work goes on in full swing to meet the deadline. But he is dealing with the NHAI and the Railways which are beyond the control of the State Government. These two entities are laggards in completing any project they take up. Cost overrun and time overrun are integral to their functioning. They set the industry standard for incompetence and unreliability. Scapegoating others for their failure is in their genes. Their institutionalised tardiness is beyond cure. Nothing can hurry them up to meet a deadline. Even at the eleventh hour, they will come up with excuses for not completing the work. Even if they complete their work by 90 per cent, the road and the rail can’t be used by lakhs of visitors. Our weak-kneed Chief Minister has done his bit by writing letters to the concerned Ministries at the Centre. But the way the work is progressing, it requires a leap of faith that they will be completed before the Nabakalebar.
(saratpattanayak@hotmail.com. (M) 9437962121)