Bhubaneswar: Be it cricket or politics, fitness and form is the basis for excellency. It is just like, if a cricketer loses fitness, he is out of the game and if a politician loses the faith of the people he is serving, he is out of the peoples’ minds and becomes irrelevant. There are a number of politicians in Odisha who have gone into oblivion soon after discarded by the people for not being fit in the game of politics. But here comes the rare personality and leader like Naveen Patnaik. The fit and fine Chief Minister has been playing masterstrokes one after another for the last 22 years. Now, after serving the people for more than two decades and carving a frontal position in the who’s who of Indian Politics, he is at the helm again. All this is possible because of Naveen’s fitness and the dedication towards the people. And no doubt, there is a game changer team with Naveen that has been working relentlessly to reach out to the people and bringing in prosperity and growth to the state.
We can now compare Naveen of the late nineties with today and find a little difference. His concern to work for the people and no tolerance to corruption are still intact like it was in the beginning of his career. Naveen’s fifth term as the chief minister is an outcome of his continuous endeavour for development and the popularity he is gaining among the people of Odisha.
Wrecked by the Super Cyclone of 1999, the people of Odisha choose to give a chance to Naveen Patnaik to become their Chief Minister. From the day one Naveen has been tough on corruption and did not heed to injustice towards common people. He took exemplary decisions that were never seen in the Odisha politics. In the late nineties and the beginning of the twenties, Odisha was going through a phase that was never seen. The biggest challenge for the state was poverty and the rehabilitation of the millions of people devastated by the Super Cyclone. The financial condition of the state was in doldrums and there was no money in the treasury to pay salaries to the government employees.
Fighting Natural Disaster
Taking the mantle to bring in a resilient Odisha, Naveen took over the leadership and his priority was to bring in a transparent and corruption free government. In the next few years he worked for the economic growth of the state by massive industrialization. It was followed by programs to alleviate poverty from the state that included subsidized rice at Rs Two per kilo. The economic growth of the state resulted in the improvement of state financials and the state was out of danger from being a bankrupt one. The problem of poverty and starvation deaths was controlled to a large extend after the government reduced the prices of food grains from Rs Two to One per Kilo. With this the state witnessed rapid growth in infrastructure development. The state was transforming amidst negligence by the center and the frequent natural disasters that crippled the economy. But it created a special position for itself in the world for fighting natural disasters.
Focus on Development
The next phase of the development mainly focused on the development of the health and education sectors. While the women and child health became the priority for the government, it also took steps for development of education in the state. Some of the initiatives and programs of Naveen’s Government like Mamata, Ahaar and Kalia not only became the benchmark for people oriented welfare programs, but also got appreciations from all around. Though the state was famous for some of the best players of Hockey, it had no proper infrastructure for the game. And today we can see a reversal of the situation. Odisha today nurtures Hockey like no other state of India. It has successful organized the Hockey World Cup and is attracting many other international events. It is also not leaving behind other sports and games. It has become the sports Capital of the India today.
5T Mantra Zero Tolerance to Corruption
Showing his same fitness that he had during the beginning of his career, Naveen Patnaik has once again taken the chief ministership for the fifth term. This time he has the Five Ts with him for the all-round development of the state. The 5-T program intends to bring in transformation through technology, transparency, timeliness and teamwork. As part of this initiative, the state government has implemented the Mo Sarkar Program that intends to fix the accountability and bring in a change in the working culture of the service delivery process. Naveen’s “No Tolerance” to corruption has seen new vigor. In the last few days, the Odisha government has acted tough and taken action against officers who are found to be corrupt by dismissing them from the service. Some of the officers shown the doors include senior administrative officers who were found to be corrupt by the vigilance and were convicted by the courts. It shows that Naveen is in no mood to forgive the wrongdoing. A masterstroke of Naveen is the Mo Sarkar program that will take the feedback of the public on various services provided by the government. Odisha is the only state in India where the government has started a system of feedback for public services. The Chief Minister has been keen on changing the behavior of the officials towards common people. The focus should be now on empathetic solution of peoples’ problems. The political leadership has also been asked by Naveen to reach out to the people and solve the problems.
Mo Sarkar- Peoples’ Government
We have got very rare instances of successful government of the people, by the people and for the people. Now the time has come to show that the true leaders of the state are its citizens and no authority on them is acceptable. Naveen’s initiatives are a step closer to make it a reality that the people are the masters and persons with power cannot dictate the terms. Fighting all the hindrances, Naveen has been able to implement the path breaking initiatives to bring in a true transformation in Odisha. He has taken on himself to follow the principles of Mahatma Gandhi on non-violence and development of the people. The dedicated and active team of Naveen is doing its best to transform the state into one of the developed in India.
Conclusion: With the implementation of innovative 5T in administration and citizen centric “Mo Sarkar” policy has given a new dimension to Gandhian Swaraj and more importantly common people have started to feel the change and new governance where people are at the focal point. Close monitoring by the Chief Minister himself be it the top bureaucrat or a low level officer at field, all are rejuvenated and motivated to serve the people.