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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Naveen reshuffles ministry, five new minister inducted, three dropped

Debi Mishra stripped off higher education, gets forest

By Debadas Pradhan/www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, May 10: In a reshuffle exercise, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday inducted five legislators as new ministers to his Cabinet and dropped three senior ministers. One of the state ministers – Ms Anjali Behera – was also elevated to Cabinet rank.

The legislators sworn-in as new Cabinet ministers at a function held at the Raj Bhawan here are Lal Bihari Himrika, Pradip Maharathy, Maheswar Mohanty, Usha Devi and Niranjan Pujari.

Mr Himrika was given scheduled caste and scheduled tribe development portfolio while Pradip Maharathy was given agriculture. Similarly Maheswar Mohanty was entrusted panchayati raj department while Usha Devi was given women and child development portfolio. Niranjan Pujari got food and civil supplies.

Slight readjustments were made into the portfolio of a few ministers. Sarada Nayak – who was holding food and civil supplies – was given urban development while higher education was taken away from Debi Prasad Mishra. Mr Mishra got forest department.

Earlier on Monday, the chief minister had sprung a surprise by dropping three ministers from his Cabinet. They included agriculture minister Dr Damodar Rout, sports and youth affairs minister Praveen Bhanjadeo and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe development minister Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha.

Later talking to the newspersons at the Raj Bhawan, the chief minister described the induction of new ministers into the council of ministers as a “routine” affair.

In fact, the chief minister effected a reshuffle in his council of ministers after completion of two years of his office in the third term. In his second term also, the chief minister had also gone for the reshuffle after two years.

Mr Patnaik said those inducted into the Ministry were experienced party leaders and hoped that they would work hard to the satisfaction of the people of Orissa. The new ministers, he said, would be allocated portfolios soon.

Sources said the newly sworn-in ministers will be distributed portfolios later in the evening.

The state politics have warmed up following dropping of the senior leader Dr Damodar Rout.

During Naveen’s second term, Dr Rout – who was then holding panchayati raj portfolio – was also shunted out from the council of ministers after two years. The veteran leader, while reacting to his exclusion, dropped hints that he was dropped as he did not bow to pressures from some influential circles in the party forum.

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