Aid rivalry

Arch rivals BJD and BJP competed with each other to help Odias travelling on the ill-fated Kalinga-Utkal Express that derailed near Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. Both the parties had sent teams to the spot and claimed credit for doing their best to help the victims. But the BJD went a step further with the Odisha government announcing compensation for Odia people killed or injured in the accident even before there was specific information about number of casualties. Five Odias were hurt in the accident and three of them were discharged from hospitals by the time the BJD leaders reached the spot with medical teams.

Award milking

The BJD is milking the best administrator award conferred on chief minister Naveen Patnaik by a Delhi-based magazine politically. After the initial bout of chest thumping and a show of strength at Bhubaneswar airport the day Naveen returned from Delhi, the party is now seeking to highlight his “best administrator” tag through advertisements on TV channels in the state. The ad is a collage that juxtaposes Naveen’s development initiatives with visuals of him receiving the award in Delhi. Seeking to project him as the number one chief minister in the country, the advertisement blitz is being seen as the BJD’s bid to counter the BJP’s propaganda against him which would also set the stage for ruling party’s campaign for 2019 elections.

New feather

Sports and youth affairs minister Chandra Sarathi Behera, who collected accolades for successfully organising the Asian Athletics Championship in the state capital last month, is now set to add another feather to his cap with a sports climbing complex set to come up at Kalinga Stadium. The project, which will create facilities for three different types of climbing , is being seen as a major achievement for the sports department, which is also gearing up to host two international hockey tournaments at the stadium. “Behera, despite being a first-time minister, has raised the profile of his department which, till recently, did not receive much attention,” remarked a party leader.

Mounting chaos

Health minister Pratap Jena is a worried man. Hardly a month after his fire-fighting skills were put to test by the striking doctors at Vimsar, Burla, he is facing a new challenge with the agitating employees of the 108 ambulance service disrupting emergency health services across the state. The strikers remain adamant despite the threat of invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act against them. Sources said even if Jena managed to persuade the strikers to return to work, government hospitals and health centres, especially in remote areas, would continue to face other problems. The most acute of them is rampant absenteeism among doctors. “Problems of the department are unending. The minister must learn to live with them,” said a sympathetic health mandarin.

Panda stand

The presence of BJD’s Kendrapara MP Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda at the funeral of Congress’s Bijepur MLA Subal Sahu in Bargarh has set tongues wagging. While Panda explained his family’s connection with the area to an Odia news channel, his visit has set off speculation about the likelihood of his contesting the next Lok Sabha election from Bargarh. The high-profile MP was recently removed from the post of the party’s spokesperson. He was also pelted with eggs, slippers and stones by workers of his faction-ridden party in his constituency. Grapevine has it that the MP, whose relations with some BJD leaders from his constituency have become strained, would be happy to move to Bargarh. BJD sources, however, dismissed the speculation. 

Ashutosh Mishra