Even as the State Congress is gradually being reduced to a skeleton with exodus of leaders and workers, PCC president Jayadev Jena and Union Minister Srikant Jena, who are virtually at the helm of affairs, are yet to prove their mettle to check dissent in the party and keep the Congress flock together.
Besides, Congress campaign committee chief and Union Minister Srikant Jena, who was expected to take up a bigger role in spreading the UPA Government’s popularity and exposing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s culpability in a host of scams, has rather disappointed the public for his way of attacking Patnaik’s Government and non-performance.
Srikant, no doubt, took several attempts to attack Patnaik in the past, be it on the mining scam, non-utilisation of Central funds, Phailin mismanagement, irregularities in distribution of `1-a-kg rice etc. But every time, he seemed to have failed to hit his mark. His latest salvo against Chief Minister daring him to come to a public platform for a debate on several issues truly underlined how messy and ill-conceived his plan was. Though he and Jayadev tried to create much uproar and even a delegation of Congress members led by the duo met the Governor on the topic, it proved to be much ado about nothing.
On the other hand, while the BJD camp had been successful in creating an anti-UPA wave in the State on issues like Central neglect, non-revision of mining royalty, minuscule fund for Phailin operation and most importantly, Centre’s continuous apathy in not according special category State status to Odisha, the State Congress almost failed to create an atmosphere in favour of the Centre. Even as Patnaik paid no heed to Srikant’s demand for a public debate on the performance of his Government and the funds sanctioned by the UPA to Odisha, his colleagues termed the proposal as unconventional and easily got away with it. After all, why a popular Government would feel it necessary to accept its opposition’s demand for a debate on its performanceIJ BJD’s trick was more effective than Congress’s antics.
Srikant as Union Minister of Chemical and Fertilisers had given high hopes to the people so far as revival of the Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI) plant in Talcher is concerned.
While the BJD Government has claimed to have brought about rapid growth to the State through industrialisation, the Union Minister’s failure to rise to the public expectation in refunctioning the sick plant is another example of his non-performance and why BJD is ahead of Congress.
The FCI plant was closed in 2002 under the recommendation of the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). The BIFR was set up in 1992 to decide the viability of the unit after it went sick in 1991. The plant had been established in the 70s and was a big success as it produced fertiliser from coal. It was set up in Talcher considering the rich coal belt of the locality.
The idea was to produce cheap and huge quantity of fertiliser using coal so as to meet the growing scarcity of fertiliser in the country. The plant that began operation in 1980 was a big hit till 1990. Corruption, political interference and management lapses led it to become sick and unviable.
The vast plant that is spread over an area of 7 acre of land in Talcher is now dead. Its buildings, roads and other infrastructure have ruined. The main plant’s machineries worth crores of rupees have gone useless for being nonfunctional for years.
Srikant had visited Talcher in 2009 and 2010 for revival of the plant. Addressing a public meeting during the opening of a site office of the plant in 2012, Srikant had claimed that the plant would be operationalised at an investment of `800 crore. He had also informe that the plant would be revived jointly by GAIl, RCF, FCI and Coal India.
Ever since, the people of the State in general and Talcher in particular had gone highly ambitious about the change of the plant’s fate.But as of now except issue of tender for auctioning of the plant machineries and a site office for survey, no progress has been achieved for re-functioning of the unit.The high hopes of the people have shattered, while the credibility of Srikant and Congress is at a stake.