While Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched a drive against corruption by calling for an end to the PC system in Government offices, his Cabinet colleague Minster Surjya Narayan Patro took up the cudgel by going two steps farther.
Patro during a function in Ganjam district asked the people to slap the Government officials with chapal if they demanded PC, or bribe. CM Patnaik, of late, has been quite concerned over the PC system in Government offices. During a meet of the district Collectors after a jolt in the rural polls to the ruling BJD, Patnaik urged them to check the PC system. The PC is an illegal share demanded during implementation of a scheme or project, where people are ultimately harassed. While bribe is taken under the table, PC, also a type of bribe, is taken openly. It is so much common that PC is now taken as if a legitimate share by officials from top to bottom in the hierarchy of bureaucracy.Patro asked people to slap officials with chapal if they demand PC in lieu of doing their service and even gave a phone number to dial him in case they require any help. No doubt, this is a Biju legacy which the ruling BJD carries as the Bible for governance.
During his tenure as Chief Minister, Biju Patnaik had asked people to attack officials if they demand bribe. And it was Biju who had fallen prey to his scheme as the officials in the secretariat had attacked him. But Patro had no qualms for asking his people to resort to violent means, neither was he prepared to eat the humble pie for this, though what he said was going to create more trouble in the service delivery system rather than drive away bribery.BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma very pertinently said that the Minister was instigating the BJD workers to behave rudely with Government officials, least concerned with the consequence of such action.
The Minster must know that the poor people in the State, who are struggling to get two square meals a day and for whom minimum amenities like a house or land patta are a far cry, cannot afford to react aggressively to PC demand. On the contrary, they would either have to be very grateful to the babus or keep mum against PC.
Then who is the call by the Minister forIJ Surely it is for his party men and workers who are powerful due to the blessings of the ruling party, who knows that in case there are police or legal troubles, their political bosses would act as savour for them. However, what is important to note here is how far the call of Patro is taken up in right earnest.