A scion of the Ali royal household, Pratap Keshari Deb is the illustrious son of an equally illustrious father late Sarat Kumar Deb. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth; he had his schooling from the Rajkumar College, Raipur and then had his graduation from the Ramjas College, New Delhi. He entered into politics and public life at the behest of his politician-mother Sushree Devi in 1995 and opened his innings to the Odisha legislative Assembly in 2000. He was consecutively elected to the OlA from 2000, 2004 and 2009 and was inducted as a Minister in the Naveen Patnaik Government in 2012. In 2014, he lost the elections and, thereafter, has taken over as the Chairman of the Odisha Housing Board. A leading spokesperson of the ruling party, he is widely known for his witty replies, brilliant repartee, uncommon commonsense, interspersed with biting sarcasm that leaves his opponents high and dry. In an interview to The Pioneer, this young enterprising politician spoke to Sugyan Choudhury at his residence in Bhubaneswar.
Political observers point out that the BJP is going to be on its tsunami by 2019. Do you think that it may affect the poll prospects of the BJD in 2019IJ
First of all, I would say that there is no BJP tsunami in Odisha. Polls are at a far. We are in 2017, and polls are due in 2019 March. By no fathom, any political observer or strategist will agree to draw battle lines before two years. Two years is a pretty long time for political happenings.
Do you think an anti-incumbency factor will pose a problem to the BJD regimeIJ
Yes, definitely. I do agree with you very much. We are running on our fourth term in the Government, and we would be contesting for the fifth term. Definitely anti-incumbency factor will be there; it will remain a factor.
The grapevine is agog that you are going to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. How far is it correctIJ
If you go by media reports, I shall term them as speculations. The prerogative lies with the party supremo and he will to take the final call. Before the Rajya Sabha election is declared, you can think that they are just speculations only.
It is alleged that the BJD Government has neglected the interest of the OBC communities when 52% of the State’s population is OBC. The OBC Financial Corporation is languishing and is not able to receive the windfall of Central Government funds for a default amount of Rs 12 crore only. What plans are on your agenda to win the confidence of these neglected sectionsIJ
Cast and religion have never been a factor in the general elections of Odisha. The national executive committee of the BJP, which plays the caste cards, never played the OBC card during their meet recently, and you are correct that 52 per cent of OBC population is there in Odisha and they form the support base. When you take into account Naveen Patnaik’s social welfare schemes, you can find for yourself that they have not been left out. On the contrary, they stand solidly behind us; and when such questions of neglect come, the Government of Odisha will not sit silently.
You belong to the Kendrapada area and people expected a great deal from your leadership interspersed with your royal family background. But the Cuttack-Chandbali Road, a large portion of which runs through your constituency, has not yet been completed and the work is running at a snail’s pace. The people of these areas are disenchanted with the Government. What is your response to thisIJ
I agree with you hundred per cent. A project was declared and the foundation stone was laid by our popular Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik way back in 2007. This is 2017. The reason for the delay was that we never obtained the environmental clearance. The same was made available by the end of 2013 only. In 2014, when the tender started and the project work got operated, there was again the environmental blockade. This time, it was for a different reason. First time, it was for the Bhitarkanika sanctuary and coastal alignments, but this time it was for the new environmental laws of the State Government. There was a blockade of the supply of quarry as per the order issued by the Department of Coal, Environment and Pollution Control Board. All quarries fall in Jajpur district. Kendrapada do not possess such deposits. After resumption of the supply of quarry, I think by the end of June, roads from Jagatpur to Pattamundai will be over; and by the end of 2018 March, the roads will be completed through Ali, Rajkanika and till Chandbali end. It will no longer be moving at a snail’s pace.
You are the Chairman of Odisha Housing Corporation. What schemes are there for the lIG ones and whether it is adequately planned in your agendaIJ
So far, the Housing Board was concentrating on social housing schemes in which we have HIG, MIG, lIG and EWS schemes. last year, the Government came with a proposal of affordable housing schemes under the provision lIG and EWS. For providing housing in affordable schemes, we have to compete in the market; and we have to have lands free of cost. Only five months back, I was provided with 6.7 acre of land; and I am hopeful that by the end of August, we shall be launching the affordable housing schemes.
Odisha is known as the land of lord Jagannath where the culture of “Atithi Devo Bhava” is prevalent since time immemorial. The absence of a courtesy call at the airport by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the PM has raised many eyebrows. How do you look at thisIJ
The reason is very simple. He came here not as the PM but as a party functionary to attend a meeting. But if you look at the last seven days’ media coverage, it was as if there was a BJP tsunami, as if the BJP was going to form Government, as if the road to the 2019 general elections for the BJP was clear and that too many people were going to join the BJP. All these were hoax and what more, Hon’ble Prime Minister never spoke a word good or bad about Odisha; neither Amit Shah spoke too in this regard. Only he congratulated his party rank and file for having done good performance in the last panchayat polls. The data given by the party’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra were all hoax. He gave all wrong figures. They said the four-time Chief Minister of Odisha has done nothing for poverty eradication. look, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are behind Odisha so far as poverty alleviation is concerned. What about Raman Singh who is a three-time Chief MinisterIJ They never talked about a word of Mahanadi waters, about Special Category State status for Odisha for which they had promised in their poll manifesto in 2014. They never uttered a word about any special package for Odisha. “You have given Rs 1,25,000 crore as a special package to Bihar, then what about OdishaIJ” At a national executive meet, issues of national perspectives are taken up, but what happened here in the meetingIJ It was a media perception that people were made to believe that the BJP is on its march on what you asked earlier towards a tsunami. Please don’t buy such a theory. It is just a hype and hoopla made by your media people. Then, why should our Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik have gone thereIJ
How is the health of our Chief Minister Naveen PatnaikIJ
He is absolutely fit and fine. Again, I tell you this is absolutely a media perception coupled with the rumour mongering Opposition leaders since 2014 September, the days of the Kandhamal elections. The visit of Gita Mehta here has been reasoned as due to the ill health of Naveen Patnaik which is a malicious lie and a gossip in the grape vine. This has been spread to create dissensions in our party. I would recommend to the people of the State through your paper not to swallow such sugarcoated pills.