File picture of Naveen Patnaik taking oath as chief minister for the third time at Raj Bhavan on May 21, 2009

Bhubaneswar, May 21: As chief minister Naveen Patnaik completes two years of his third term in office, he has to grapple with a series of scams and scandals, which have sullied the image of his government.

Exactly two years ago, Naveen had taken oath as chief minister for the third consecutive term after his party secured a landslide victory in the 2009 Assembly polls.

He had led his fledgling regional outfit, which had contested the polls alone after breaking an 11 year-old alliance with BJP, to power. His party had also set a record as the longest surviving regional party in power in the state.

Armed with a massive mandate (the party had won 103 seats in 147-member state assembly), the BJD government was expected to have a smooth innings and show a good performance.

“A great deal of developmental works have been taken up by our government, especially in industry, agriculture and irrigation sector. We have achieved success in agriculture, health and infrastructure development,” Naveen told reporters here today.

“We will continue to strive hard for development of the state and implement various welfare and developmental programmes for the people,” he added.

Highlighting the government’s achievements during the past two years, revenue and disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patro said Orissa had topped among the states in implementation of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. The state government distributed land titles to 2.64 lakh traditional forest dwellers and 724 communities by April this year.

“The state has achieved a fiscal turnaround and become revenue surplus. Our annual plan size has been on the risem,” said Patro adding that industrial investments to the tune of Rs 5 lakh crore had been lined up.

The state government has taken a pioneering step by raising reservation quota from 33 per cent to 50 per cent seats in panchayati raj institutions for women.

The repeated electoral successes and achievements notwithstanding, it has not been a smooth ride for Naveen during his third innings. A series of scams beginning with the coal scam and the Rs 10,000 crore mining scam to the dal scam and MGNREGS scam has embarrassed the government.

The Supreme Court has ordered a CBI probe into the MGNREGS scam, while the dal and mining scams have come under high court scanner.

“This government is neck-deep in corruption and the series of scams have exploded the Mr Clean image of Naveen Patnaik,” said senior Congress leader and Opposition chief whip Prasad Harichandan.

“He can also no more claim to be honest,” said BJP leader and former minister Bijay Mohapatra.

“Naveen has not only played with the lives of lakhs of innocent children and pregnant mothers (read the dal scam), he has not even bothered to hand over Lord Jagannath’s land to a multinational company (for the proposed Vedanta University),” observed BJP state president and former Union minister Juel Oram.

As if scams were not trouble enough for the government, three months ago it also had to deal with a hostage crisis, which invited criticism from the Opposition. The government had to concede to conditions set by Maoists for the release of abducted Malkangiri collector R.V. Krishna.

Flaying the government for surrendering to the Maoists, BJP leaders alleged that the hostage crisis was a “ploy” to “deflect public attention” from the scams.