POWER SECTOR SlIPPING FROM THE GUTTER TO THE SEWER
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has wiped out all the painstaking power sector reforms conceived and executed by two of his most famous predecessors, Biju Patnaik and JB Patnaik. Biju Patnaik was the most passionate evangelist for power sector reforms. He was convinced about the imperative need to drastically restructure the monolithic and grossly inefficient OSEB which was becoming a bigger and bigger financial black hole with each passing year. He saw the crisis in the power sector widening and deepening right in front of his eyes. But he had the wisdom and courage to take the bull by the horns. He was the first Chief Minister in the country to commit himself to the World Bank to bring about the reforms and prepared all the ground works during his Chief Ministership from 1990 to 1995. Guided by his vision, JB Patnaik fleshed out details and carried it forward with actual enactments and institution-building during his Chief Ministership from 1995 to 1999. Implementation of the reforms had already started before Naveen Patnaik came to power in the beginning of 2000. But it was during his period that the reform measures were atrociously handled, ending with control of power distribution back in the Government hands. Patnaik has neither the vision of his father nor the tenacity of JB Patnaik to lead the State forward. Throughout his 15 years of reign he has been laidback almost to the horizontal. His Zen-like serenity over the continuous smackdowns between the OERC and the private discoms will be the envy of even a statue. He never bothered as the crisis was fast ripening to a catastrophe. Privatisation of power distribution has been a ham-fisted disaster during his regime.
POWER SECTOR IS IN ICU BUT DOCTORS ARE MISSING
When the power sector is going through the painful transition from privatisation to Government control, giving Energy Secretary Suresh Mohapatra the additional charge as the Chief Administrator of the Jagannath Temple is madness taken to new heights. The Energy Department is in the thick of an almighty mess after the Government sent Reliance-owned discoms packing last week. The thing uppermost in the Secretary’s mind should be whether the Government will permanently keep power distribution under its control or it will scout for new firms through international bidding. What went wrong with privatisation and what safeguards should be taken to prevent recurrence of the past mistakes should be gripping the Secretary’s mind. The Government stands between the devil of State control and the deep blue sea of privatisation. The transition from private to public ownership and possibly back again to private hands will be utterly messy if the Secretary is asked to look after another job requiring his more urgent attention. Given Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s monomaniacal obsession with Nabakalebar, any intelligent officer should know which side his bread is buttered on. Mohapatra would devote almost all his time for the fast-approaching festival Patnaik is so crazy about. The Energy Department never received the attention and importance that is due to it. Patnaik never gave charge of the department to a Cabinet Minister. A Minister of State can hardly do justice to a sector that is veritably a GDP multiplier. The consequence of all this neglect means we have a patient in the ICU but the doctors are missing.
IN BlATANT POPUlISM, PATNAIK YIElDS TO NONE
When it comes to blatant populism, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik yields to no one. After distributing umbrella and blanket, he has now decided to provide Rs 5-meal to the urban poor. Styling himself as an avatar of Robin Hood, he has roped in corporate houses to support his ‘Ahar’ scheme set to debut in five cities from the beginning of next month. But the huge subsidy the Government will provide to keep the mass-feeding scheme running on a daily basis automatically means diversion of funds from the far more critical infrastructure sectors like roads, power and irrigation. To quench his insatiable thirst for popularity, Patnaik has a history of incubating such shady ideas without giving a thought for the real benefits for the people. Electricity is available only in 43 per cent homes and clean drinking water in 14 per cent. The State is contemptuously referred to as a vast infrastructure-deficit wasteland stuck in a time warp. Almost half of the State’s population is below the poverty line. Patnaik is doing precious little for the economic growth of the State. Those who think he will economically improve the State will do well not to confuse their fond wish for its realisation. The little elves who have thought – because Patnaik is acutely hard of thinking - of the low-cost meals are unable to see the wood for the trees. They will permanently secure for Odisha the tag of the most backward State in the country. That is for sure.
ClUCKING lOUDlY WITHOUT lAYING THE EGG
late Biju Patnaik’s birth anniversary last week was turned into a Centre-bashing by BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik. On such solemn occasions, he reads out laboriously the anti-Centre lines specially ghostwritten for him. On top of his list of grievances sits non-classification of Odisha as a Special Category State. A barrage of accusations against the Centre is the over-arching theme in all the party meetings. The theme, the tone and the delivery have not undergone any change during Patnaik’s years at the helm. His low monotone reading of the prepared speech is a good antidote to any sleep disorder anywhere. The antithesis between the revolting mood among the party workers and the insipid speech of the leader is all too palpable. He has been doing this ritualistically for the past 15 years he is in power. If that strategy has not succeeded, it should occur to him that a change in tactics is urgently called for. One of the definitions of madness is to do the same thing again and again and expect different results. The only thing Patnaik ever learns is that he never learns.
(saratpattanayak@hotmail.com (M) 9437962121)