WODC has become rehabilitation centre of ‘failed’ BJD leaders: Congress

By Debadas Pradhan
Bhubaneswar, August 23: The Congress, the main opposition in the Orissa Legislative Assembly, on Tuesday said the ruling BJD had converted the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) into rehabilitation centre by accommodating its “failed” leaders.
Raising the issue in the state Assembly, legislators of the party demanded immediate reorganisation of the body with “dynamic” people as its members.
Congress MLA from Kantabanjhi Santosh Singh Saluja said BJD leaders who suffered defeats in the 2009 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls were regularly being rehabilitated in the WODC instead of allowing dynamic people to serve the organisation.
“All those who were defeated in the last elections have been rehabilitated as expert members. These members – who have been taken in the WODC as its expert members - are trying to project them as more powerful persons than the elected Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and Member of Parliaments (MPs). They were also behaving in authoritarian manner,” complained Mr Saluja.
He alleged that “so-called” expert members were asking for bribe to make recommendations for constituency-wise projects.
Critising the state government’s negligence in giving complete autonomy and delay in setting up of WODC headquarters, Congress legislator Naba Kishore Das said that the government’s stand on this sensitive issue was very “shocking” and “shameful.”
“WODC was formed with an objective to address the regional imbalances and bring socio-economic development to the people living in western Orissa districts. It seems that the objective has been defeated by one other the ruling BJD which always tried to make it a subservient body and a centre of rehabilitation of its rejected leaders,” Mr Das observed.
Nihar Ranjan Mohananda, another Congress member, said the WODC which was formed to carry out smooth and sustainable development of local people by formulating and executing its own development policies and programmes, was in moribund because of the state government’s inaction.
The members urged the Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat to direct the government to immediately oust the political members from the WODC appointed as expert members and accept the recommendations of the local MLAs and MPs for execution of various development projects.
The legislators demanded to fill up the post of WODC chairman which is lying vacant since August 1 and shift the headquarters of the organization from Bhubaneswar to a unanimously agreed place in western Orissa.

BJD STARES AT END, BATTLE LINE DRAWN BETWEEN NJD AND PJD

Congress calm, BJP on offensive as BJD goes defensive

By Our Correspondent / Source: www.indusvalleytimes.com Bhubaneswar, June 7: For Congress in Orissa, the situation remains the same – confusion reigns supreme in the party, crippling the potential leaders to raise vital issues that that may dent into the beleaguered BJD and its leadership. On the other hand, for the BJP, – the erstwhile “most” loyal partner of the BJD, –it’s perhaps the opportune time to rise from the ashes and assert itself in the state’s political firmament. And the party makes no mistake in accurately reading the current state of affairs and does its homework well to lay the foundation for a grand upheaval. Strikingly enough, the BJD that enjoyed overwhelming support of the people all these years on its promise of “clean” and “transparent” governance, now finds itself in a very awkward position. It promised crusade against corruption, but the Opposition is now out to crucify it (the BJD) on the same charge. It pledged good governance, but faces the charge of “misgovernace” or “bad governance.” It promised to protect jal, jamin and jungle (water, land and forest), but faces the allegation of mindless looting the same natural resources. It promised good leader, but questions have been raised about true leader. Where to go from now and how? The BJD is literally caught in catch22 situation. An enviable third term for Naveen Patnaik appears to have been a difficult phase to pass through. Most of the Biju BJD leaders are almost out of the party, while New Janata Dal – [NJD), (“New” may be translated as “Naveen” in Oriya, nothing to do with CM Naveen Patnaik) and Pyari Janata Dal [PJD] (“Pyari” may be translated into “People” or “popular” in English, nothing to do with BJD leader “Pyarimohan”) elements in the party are weighing their own strength to assert themselves in both the party forum and governance. A few seasoned politicians like A.U. Singhdeo, Prasanna Acharya Prafulla Ghadei who worked with Biju Patnaik have kept discreet silence, knowing well their voluntary service was not all solicited to bail out from the present crisis. The party now utterly lacks a credible voice and acceptable face to convince the people it once promised to serve. With the BJD house burning in internal fire of bickering, distrust and intolerance, the future holds interesting developments in store for the party and the possible ripples would certainly have its repercussion on state politics, maintain political observers. The BJP, under the stewardship of crafty Bijoy Mohapatra and Jual Orma, has prepared a blue-print for a grand burial of the “non-political” elements that have “ruined” the state in the past one decade. The party is compiling documents to wage sustained battle against such elements who focused more on self-accumulation of wealth at the cost of the state and common people. The Congress state unit, bereft of unit, stares helpless for an uncertain future. Lack of strong leadership and meticulous planning stands in the way of the party grabbing the opportunity for a return to mainstream politics. Source: www.indusvalleytimes.com

BJP brings 10 serious charges against BJD

By Ratikant Mohanty/ www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, May 26: The BJP is now out to nail its erstwhile ally the BJD. The party on Thursday brought serious charges of corruption against the ruling BJD headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
In a booklet titled “Bhrastacharinka Aparadh O Durnitira Kalankita Pharda (criminal acts of the crooks and black-pages of corrupts), the party mentioned about about 10 major corruptions that took place under the present regime in the last few years. The Rs 500-crore scam in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act finds place in the chapter one while dal and mining scams have been place in second and third chapters, respectively.
The booklet was prepared by the BJP chargesheet team headed by central executive body member r Bijoy Mohapatra. The book was released by BJP state president Jual Oram in presence of central leaders like Kiriti Somaya and Santosh Gangwar.
The other chapters deal with issues like diversion of river water for industrial use, farmer suicide, “undue” favour to Vedanta and Posco, water resources department scam, misappropriation of tribal development fund, “illegal” sale of Khandadhar mines and collapse of law and order situation.
Releasing the booklet in presence of Central BJP leaders Sontosh Gangwar and Kiriti Somaya, BJP state president Jual Oram said the party would go to the public to make them aware about the “real” face of Naveen Patnaik.
“After 10 years of drama, Naveen now stands exposed. People have started to see the real face of Naveen who is neck-deep involved in corruption,” Mr Oram said.
Charge-sheet committee chairman Mr Mohapatra, while throwing lights on various corruption charges, said the BJP would soon bring more serious charges of corruption against the BJD leadership.
“The only business of the BJD has to loot money. Almost all the corruption charges that we have placed in the booklet are bigger than the 2G spectrum scam. We will expose the BJD and its leader thoroughly,” he added.
The BJD spokesperson Baishnab Charan Parida rubbished the BJP’s chargesheet saying the BJP was making “baseless” allegations for its own political survival.
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Pandemonium in Orissa Assembly over Vedanta University land deal, missing of file

Ratikant Mohanty
Bhubaneswar, Dec. 6: Deadlock continues to prevail in Orissa Legislative Assembly. The Opposition Congress on Monday stalled the Assembly proceedings protesting the ruling BJD’s “reluctance” to take actions against the government officials who “connived” to acquire Jagannath temple land for the proposed Vedanta University and missing of file of S. N. Das Mohapatra Limited, a mining company.

The question hour business was conducted only for 16 minutes as the Speaker Pradeep Kumat Amat adjourned the House following pandemonium created by the Congress, the main opposition in the Assembly.

Speaking to reporters after adjournment of the House, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said the state government was paying no heed to the Opposition’s demand to inform the House as to what actions had been taken following the HC direction to “punish” the culprits who violated forest and environment laws to favour Vedanta University.

“The Naveen Patnaik government seems to have no respect for the law of the land. It even does not care to obey the order of the judiciary. The Naveen Patnaik government is keen to protect the offenders as it has its own share in the offence,” Mr Singh said.

On November 16, The Orissa High Court had declared the land acquisition for the Vedanta University project at Puri as “illegal” and asked the company to return the acquired land to the concerned people, agencies and the state government. Besides, the court directed the state government to take actions against the officials who facilitated the illegal land acquisition.

During the brief question hour business, Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan raised the issue of missing of S.N. Das Mohapatra Limited (SNML) mining lease file from the state secretariat and sought an explanation from the government on this.

BJP Legislature Party Leader K.V. Singhdeo, while expressing dismay over the file missing, said the government could have deliberately suppressed the file as it was a vital evidence to the multi-crore mining scam.

“The missing of S.N. Das Mohapatra Mining Limited file from the high-security state secretariat is a very serious issue. When the state secretariat is not a safe place, one can well imagine what could be the situation outside,” Mr Singhdeo said.

Meanwhile, a team of police officials from the Capital Police Station went to the mining department office in the secretariat and asked the questioned a few officials about the missing file.

Pyari-Damodar war of wards warms BJD politics

By Our Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Nov. 10: The internal bickering in the ruling BJD, especially between the Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra and senior leader Dr Damodar Rout, has now come to the fore with both the leaders indulging in a fierce war or words. Hitting back at Dr Rout’s Tuesday’s remark there was no second person other than the chief minister Naveen Patnaik to assess his performance, Mr Mohapatra said the agriculture minister was apparently perceiving “some threat” to his position as the chief minister is set to start an evaluation exercise concerning functioning of his ministers. “You earn enemies when you work sincerely and whole heartedly for your party or for that matter any organisation. We are no exception to it,” Mr Mohapatra told in an interview with the local OTV channel. Dr Rout sought back: “There was time in the past when I used to evaluate performance of the people who are now boasting of shouldering the party responsibility and out to evaluate us.” Not to be left behind, the maverick BJD RS member, not be left behind, fought back saying “Dr Rout was a veterinary doctor when I was collector and later head of Dandakaranya project. Later, I was advisor to the then chief minister (Read Biju Patnaik) I never worked under him.” The war of words began recently after Mr Mohapatra, said to be the advisor chief minister Naveen Patnaik, indicated about a ministry reshuffle basing on the performance of the ministers.
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