Bhubaneswar, Sept. 27: The Naveen Patnaik-led Odisha government has decided to refurbish its image with constant monitoring of its anti-poor programmes.

The district collectors were served with a reminder here today to look into the functioning of such programmes.

Addressing a district collectors’ conference at the state secretariat, Naveen asked the officials not only to reach out to the people directly but also keep to tabs on the implementation of programmes such as rice for the poor.

For Naveen, who is battling allegations of illegal mining and making uncalled for recommendations in favour of private companies for allotment of coal blocks, undertaking such an exercise has become imperative to keep himself afloat politically. The Congress-led Opposition has been breathing down his neck over the failure to book the mining mafia and recommend coal blocks for private companies. The success of Congress’ September 6 rally here seems to have made him even more jittery.

Naveen asked collectors to organise Grievance Day in their respective districts every Monday instead of Saturdays. “The message should go that people’s welfare and grievance redressal come first. The shifting of the Grievance Day to Monday will give you five days in a week to follow up on the complaints,” he said. He sought to remind the collectors that he would personally be monitoring the conduct of Grievance Day in all districts.

The chief minister also took the opportunity to review the 13 major programmes of his government, beginning with the distribution of Rs 2 per kilo of rice. The flagship welfare scheme had earned him rich dividends in the elections. The government spends nearly Rs 1,000 crore on the programme.

Naveen cautioned collectors that government schemes would not be able to achieve their full impact if the district heads lost touch with the people. “Collectors should hear the voice of the people and try to redress their grievances sincerely,” he said.

The chief minister also decided to regularly hold video-conferencing sessions with the collectors to review the welfare programme. Chief secretary Bijay Patnaik said: “The collectors, too, detailed the problems they faced while implementing various welfare schemes.” However, the Congress accused the state government of deliberately avoiding a review of central programmes being implemented in Odisha. “The chief minister only reviewed his own programmes. He wanted to show that the Centre has not done nothing for the people,” alleged former Union minister Kanhu Charan Lenka.

Terming these allegations as baseless, panchayti raj minister Kalpataru Das said: “All the schemes will be reviewed one after another. It is not possible to review all the programmes at one go.”

BJD leaders feel that these measures of the state government will pay rich dividends.