Bishweswar Tudu’s Highhanded Actions Not New; Citizens Demand Action Against Minister

Bhubaneswar: Union Minister of State For Tribal Affairs and Janshakti Bisweswar Tudu has once again caught the attention but for all the wrong reasons. On Friday, two Odisha Government officials alleged that Tudu assaulted them with a Chair at his party office in Baripada and as a result both of them got injuries and hospitalized. The incident happened in the Minister’s own constituency Mayurbhanj. The two officials, District Planning Board’s Deputy Director Ashwini Malik and Assistant Director Debashish Mohapatra have alleged that the Union Minister called them to his Party Office for a review meeting and there he assaulted them and thrashed. Sources say that, the officials were reluctant to attend the review meeting being held at a political party office and had a small disagreement with the Union Minister as it will not be appropriate for Government officials to go to political party office and that to when the Model Code of Conduct is in force for Panchayat Polls. It is alleged that, some of the Union Minister’s aids were also there closed the doors when he trashed the two officials.

This is not the first time that Union Minister Tudu has courted controversy. There are many allegations of his highhanded acts in Odisha. It was seen many a times that, when he visits a place in the name of review, there happens to be some allegation about his misbehavior with state government officials. In October last year, the Minister had allegedly misbehaved and used abusive unparliamentary language with government officials including the Collector and ADM in Mayurbhanj. The incident saw wide criticism and as a mark of protest, the district association of officers of the Odisha Administrative Services had staged a Black batch protest against him for his misbehavior. All senior officers of the state government had condemned the acts of the Minister.

In another incident happened in October 2021, Tudu had misbehaved with the Champua Sub-Collector. He had also locked up the project administrator, ITDA of Rairangpur. There are reports that the Minister also misbehaved with the officials in a review meeting in Kuchinda last year. In Keonjhar, during his visit to the Kanpur irrigation project in Champua sub-division, Bishewswar had reportedly scolded the Government officials in an unparliamentary language.

While he has been alleged of misbehaving with the state government officials, it is also alleged that he instigates his party members to thrash the officials. These acts of the Union Minister have attracted widespread criticism. The latest incident has been widely criticized in the social media too with some people requesting Prime Minister Narendra to look into the issue and take action against the minister.