People Won’t Forgive Those Who Defame Their Own State for Narrow Political Interests: Naveen 

Bhubaneswar: Taking a dig at Opposition, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said that people won’t forgive those who defame their own state for narrow political interests.

People won’t forgive those who tried to stop Shree Mandir and Lingaraj projects. People won’t forgive those who block development of the state, the Chief Minister said.

While making his statement on the Motion of Thanks on Governor’s Address, the Chief Minister said, “We should always work together for a larger cause, for a “New and Empowered Odisha”.

The CM said, “I sincerely appeal to the Opposition, we can do politics during elections but not on sensitive crimes, development of the state or the image of the state and its people”.

Here is the Chief Minister’s Statement on the Motion of Thanks on Governor’s Address:

I welcome the speech of Honourable Governor on this august house.

One of the major challenges faced during this tenure was the Global pandemic Covid. I am satisfied that the state could put its best efforts and worked as a team and we ended off with one of the lowest fatality rate in the country. From testing to treatment everything was provided free of cost to the people of Odisha and we were perhaps one of the few states who have done it. The oxygen produced in Odisha was helping saving thousands of lives throughout the country. Oxygen was supplied to more than 17 states in the country. It’s a heartening moment for people of Odisha that our state played a major positive role in saving people’s life across the country.

In this term we conducted Hockey World Cup both in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela as venues. It was my Government’s tribute to the Hockey loving people of Sundargarh that hockey world cup was conducted in Sundargarh for the first time. World class stadium was created in record time and hockey fans throughout the world experienced the professionalism of Odisha in hosting such world class events. I feel so blessed that during this tenure the Parikrama project of Lord Jagannath was completed with HIS blessings. As the Gajapati Maharaj said in five hundred years this is the first major work taken up in Shree Mandira for improving devotees experience. I am so grateful for all those who have helped in this project. In addition to Shree Mandir, Maa Samalei Project was also dedicated recently. Almost all the major temples, across the State are being renovated and restored. In addition to these Churches, Mosques, every religious institution of importance are getting renovated. In every Panchayats two or three temples and religious institutions are getting renovated under Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha initiatives. I believe in honouring people’s faith and that is the motivation behind taking up renovation and restoration of religious institutions throughout the State cutting across religions. On the day our Ministry took oath I announced the 5T principles of Governance for my Government. I am happy to say at the end of this term that this has been one of the biggest game changers in governance not just in Odisha but throughout the Country. Almost all the High Schools in the State have been converted in to smart High Schools under the 5T initiatives. Allmost all the Colleges and Higher Secondary Schools are being transformed under the 5T initiatives. In fact, almost every higher education institutions of Government or Government aided is getting covered under 5T and students have great atmosphere for learning. This is one of the biggest achievements in this term. By implementing 5T principles we have achieved a great deal of irrigation coverage helping the farmers from Lower Suktel to Kanpur irrigation Anandapur barrage and many projects which have been pending for years have all been completed. In addition to that Gangadhar Meher Irrigation Project has been completed in a record time. Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana has been a big game changer where more than one and a half lakh patients are getting covered every month and the state is spending almost Rupees 250 crores every month. Imagine the kind of burden otherwise it would have been on the people of Odisha on a monthly basis. This has been one of the biggest interventions of this Government and I am proud to say this is one of the best schemes in the country providing almost universal health coverage to a state’s population. Hospital transformation have been taken up under the 5T initiative in the name of Ama Hospital programme. We have recruited doctors at the level of Asst. Surgeons and almost all our vacancies are being filled up. This is a record achievement for our Government and this shows our commitment towards health of people of Odisha.

As regards empowering the tribal people of the state, my Government has come up with a great initiative to procure hundred percent minor forest produce and ensuring the minimum support price through a path breaking scheme called LABHA. In addition to that through the special development councils my government is taking steps to preserve, promote and conserve tribal language, literature, folk art and all that is unique to them. As regards women empowerment, I have always walked the talk. About fifteen thousand crores will be disbursed amongst the Mission Shakti groups with zero percent interest. This is a record high of all time and this shows the financial empowerment of women in our state.

The crime against women has come down by twenty percent and our conviction rate has almost doubled. Recently we all had seen how Odisha is the number one revenue surplus state in the country.

We have got second highest manufacturing investment in the country and in IT we have got all major MNCs to the state while doing all this, we have also increased the area under irrigation hugely. More than One crore people have been lifted out of poverty as per NITI Aayog report. These are tremendous achievements and people of Odisha appreciate this growth trajectory.

They blessed us in the recent Panchayat Elections and BJD won all 30 district Zilla Parishads.

When all these achievements were happening, I am sorry to say the Opposition was busy politicising every crime and trying to defame the state and its people.

Yesterday the Hon’ble Court in Nayagarh delivered the judgement in the tragic ‘PARI’ case. I would like to remind the Members of the Opposition about the kind of obstruction they did in this House and tried to politicise this sensitive case.

People of Odisha knew very well all those who are trying to get bail for the accused and all those who tried to derail the judicial process. Now that the accused is convicted, where will the Opposition especially the State BJP who tried to politicise this issue at the cost of stalling justice to ‘PARI’.

I have been a member for the last 24 years in this House, I have never seen this kind of politicisation of sensitive issues.

People won’t forgive those who defame their own state for narrow political interests.

People won’t forgive those who tried to stop Shree Mandir and Lingaraj projects.

People won’t forgive those who block development of the state.

I sincerely appeal to the Opposition, we can do politics during elections but not on sensitive crimes, development of the state or the image of the state and its people.

We should always work together for a larger cause, for a “New and Empowered Odisha”.