Odisha governor MC Bhandare

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 20: Controversies hardly ever cast a shadow on governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare, who completed his five-year term today.

Barring two major instances of differences, the octogenarian former Supreme Court lawyer enjoyed excellent rapport with the Naveen Patnaik government.

His first run-in with the government was over the alleged mismanagement of the Hirakud reservoir after catastrophic floods in the Mahanadi river system last October.

Following intense pressure from the Opposition, Bhandare had proposed the appointment of a technical committee to look into the allegations of mismanagement of the reservoir but the government rejected the proposal saying that a panel constituted in 2009 was already looking into the matter.

The government’s response disappointed the Opposition leaders who had taken up the issue of the reservoir’s faulty management with the governor, who was said to be keen on appointing reputed experts to look into the issue.

The Odisha government, however, refuted the charge of mismanagement and asserted that the existing committee was competent enough to probe the issue.

The second instance of apparent strain between the government and the governor was when the latter sought the tabling of Lokpal’s special report in the Assembly on the controversial land acquisition for the Vedanta University. This came in the wake of an Opposition uproar over the issue in the legislature last December.

The Opposition had accused the government of following double standards by taking a strong position on the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill while delaying the submission of Lokpal report on land acquisition for the university.

Lokpal Justice P.K. Patra had in his report recommended appointing a competent authority to probe into the land deal for the proposed university being set up by Anil Agrawal Foundation.

The Lokpal later submitted a special report to the governor expressing his dissatisfaction with the compliance report on the recommendations made by him.

Subsequently, the governor’s secretariat wrote to the chief secretary asking him to furnish an explanatory memorandum on the issue and place the Lokpal’s special report along with an action taken report in the Odisha Assembly.

Barring these instances, Bhandare hardly ever had an issue with the government and his relations with Naveen have been cordial.