Bhubaneswar, Mar 31 (PTI) Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, vice-president of the ruling BJD in Odisha, on Thursday slammed the Odisha government’s flagship initiatives like 5T and ‘Mo Sarkar’.
Raising a question on water management in the state Assembly, the senior BJD MLA said it appears that the state government’s 5T initiative is undermining the smooth functioning of government departments.
At the beginning of its fifth term in 2019, the Naveen Patnaik dispensation had introduced the 5T (transparency, teamwork, technology, timely completion of projects leading to transformation) initiative to make governance effective.
While some departments have been covered under the 5T, all departments are yet to be brought under its purview.
The 5T is leading to a feeling of alienation among the departments hampering their functioning, Patnaik said.
“I am afraid it will affect their transparency and efficiency in future,” the senior BJD leader said.
On the state government’s ‘Mo Sarkar’ (My government) , Patnaik said the word ‘Mo’ was being liberally used in several government schemes.
Though the programme involves people, it needs to be ascertained whether it is being done in its true spirit, he said.
The lawmaker from Khandapada in Nayagarh district also said that there seems to be no definite answer from the ministers regarding tangible results of such usage.
Under the ‘Mo Sarkar’ programme, the state government collects feedback on the behaviour and professionalism of government officers, on the basis of which they are graded.
Patnaik, who is an editor-turned-politician, also expressed concern over the depleting water level in the rivers of the state.
“We came across many words like water literacy, water management, youth for water and ‘Mo Nadi Abhiyan’, in the water resources minister’s reply which sounds good to ears. Though the words are pleasant to listen to, can we say that we are really involved in such initiatives? The minister has not clarified whether these programmes have led to any development at the ground level,” the legislator said.
S R Patnaik, who is the son-in-law of former Congress chief minister J B Patnaik, had last year created ripples in state politics through his editorial write-up in leading Odia daily ‘Sambad’, mentioning that the government had “deliberately underreported” COVID deaths in the state.
This had come as an embarrassment for the BJD government which claimed to have successfully managed the pandemic situation.
In another editorial in his daily last year, Patnaik had said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik may not be aware of the prevailing scenario in the state.
He had said that the “CM works on the advice of a coterie comprising some bureaucrats and party leaders”. PTI AAM MM MM
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Source: The Print
