Assembly warmed up!
Speaker of the Odisha Assembly did not accept Jharsuguda MlA Naba Kishore Das’s plea that the button of his mobile was accidently finger tapped and the objectionable sexual scene appeared for a moment on the screen was ignored by him. But the question is who noticed this and for how long MlA Das is alleged to have enjoyed after logging onto his mobile screen is not clear. The ‘Ethics Committee’ will investigate into the matter and submit the report. It may refer to CCTV footage if any, for an impartial view. But a man is innocent till ‘proven guilty’ is the law. Though suspension is not a punishment, seven days’ ban to enter the Assembly, especially when the matter is sub judice, amounts to harassment to the least. On the other hand, if Das is acquitted by the committee what type of compensation the Odisha legislative Assembly has in store for him to restore his image. The whole drama is probably enacted by the treasury bench to divert attention of the mass from important issues like farmers’ suicide, contract teachers’ strike, Polavaram issue, agitation of the medicos, lawyers’ grievance against abolition of SAT et al. Reaction of both male and female MlAs on such an issue had warmed the otherwise dull Winter Session.
All but crocodile’s tears
In fits and starts, clamour for a separate State by people of western part of Odisha is heard. More often than not, the leaders of sign board political party like Kosal Kranti Dal (KKD) is ahead of others in propounding separate State theory on the pretext of regional imbalance, separate language and culture along with socio economic issues. Visibly there have been large scale suicides by farmers across Odisha in the recent months. Out of them, more than 100 farmers who have committed suicide on account of crop loss and excessive loan burden belong to western Odisha. There is hue and cry all across the State and the Government of the day is also cornered in the Assembly on this issue. But neither the KKD which claims to be the only political alternative for the people of western Odisha, nor the Kosal State Coordination Committee of an aspiring leader has reached out to console the victim families. As usual, there are some sympathetic Press releases. The Kosal activists who went to Delhi for a lobby in favour of a separate Kosal State have receded into a deep slumber shedding crocodile’s tears for the unfortunate victims. Existence of a political party not responding to the precarious condition of its voters should learn to accept such criticism on their strides and set examples of action oriented positive response.
Das is the king!
Former Union Minister Bhakta Charan Das in the Ministry of late Chandra Sekhar had cornered limelight for about a decade following his entry into the Indian National Congress (INC). His self styled loyalty to Rahul Gandhi is well known and in Kalahandi he has been able to overshadow leaders like Jaganath Pattnaik, Bhupinder Singh, Rash Bihari Behera – all former Ministers at one time or the other. It is undesirable that the State Congress chief should have consulted him before appointing Gobardhan Das as Kalahandi district Congress chief.
Instead of going to media, he could have straight talked to Prasad Harichandan and advised him to mend his ways. Now when the prerogative of the State Congress chief is challenged in the public domain, how does one ensure cohesiveness in the party and finally, what about presenting Odisha’s united face before the high commanding in Delhi!
This self styled loyalist of Rahul Gandhi doesn’t want to see anybody from his district in the Congress corridors of Delhi. The attitude – “I am the monarch of all I survey” the senior leader should abrogate.
Neither by choice nor by accident
Mid-road plantation in Bhubaneswar has turned out to be a mockery. Some amount of planning must have gone into it. But the fact remains that planting of tall trees on the middle of the road negates the very purpose of urban plantation. The concerned department, we feel, should have gone for dwarf trees providing thick foliage into a five feet elevation so that lights thrown by vehicles from either side of the row do not hit the drivers’ eyes directly and cause momentary blur on their eyes sufficient to cause accidents. It seems the entire world has been carried out without application of mind.
People may recall the Super Cyclone of 1999, when trees fell like ninepins and all were of fall variety. Even now Casia Siamea (Chakunda) species are planted across the road which have no power to withstand the wind speed. Planting custard apple plants with proper ground elevation by the Highway authorities could be an alternative. For the moment, tall trees can be cut at five feet height to salvage the damage already done. It is desirable that midway plantation is properly maintained. In the absence of that, is it not a mockery in the name of greeneryIJ If this is the state of affairs in the capital city, which is vying for a space in the Smart City race, the fate of other cities of Odisha can be well imagined.
(The writer , a former PR Manager of SAIl in Rourkela Steel Plant, a former Vice-Chairman of PRSI, Odisha Chapter, is a functional Editor of English weekly ‘Kosal Horizon’, email: baidyanathmishra123@rediffmail.com,Cell : 94370 83025)