Name game

If sources are to be believed, there is an interesting story behind the state government's free medicine scheme launched last Tuesday. Health department mandarins had originally decided to call it "Ama Ausadhi" echoing the not-so-successful "Jan Ausadhi" scheme of the Central government. But the chief minister's office, which did not want to look like a copycat, intervened at the last moment and re-christened it as Niramaya, a well-known Sanskrit word that means healthy or absolutely free from illness.

In absentia

During the media briefing following the state cabinet's meeting last Tuesday, chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati found himself in an awkward situation while explaining the details of the decision taken on incentives to doctors working in remote and backward areas of the state. This being the most important decision of the cabinet, mediapersons not only expected but also demanded to know the details from health secretary Arti Ahuja. She was, however, conspicuous by her absence. Though the media contingent was told that Ahuja would be arriving anytime but she did not till the end of the briefing. Finally, development commissioner, U.N. Behera came to the chief secretary's rescue fielding questions from the media on the issue on his behalf.

Clean mission

There was frenetic activity in the state home department last week shortly after new secretary Asit Tripathy took charge. The employees spent most of their energy cleaning up their workstations and making the office tidy. Almost every table was cleaned with the clutter removed and dustbins getting choked with rubbish. Peons were seen carrying heaps of old and unnecessary files and dusting them vigorously. The new home secretary is said to be a cleanliness freak and puts a premium on spic and span workstations. He also seems to have been inspired by Prime Minister Modi's Swachcha Bharat campaign during his stay in Delhi where he was on deputation before taking up his present assignment.

Surprise move

High profile bureaucrats taking up corporate jobs after superannuation is nothing new. Yet the news of former chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik joining the Vedanta Group as the president of its university project recently has created a buzz. Patnaik, a 1976 batch IAS officer, who was very close to chief minister Naveen Patnaik even after retirement, was widely tipped to become the state's next chief information commissioner. But his move to Vedanta took everyone by surprise. While it is being described as a coup of sorts for the embattled Vedanta Group in the state, speculation is rife that Patnaik took the step because his relations with the chief minister were beginning to cool off. But why? That is a question no one seems to have an answer to at the moment.

Good prospect

Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan's frequent visits to the state and the prominent say that he has in BJP's Odisha affairs has set off speculation that he is being groomed by the party as its chief ministerial candidate in the 2019 elections. Though he happens to be a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, his focus has invariably been on Odisha from where he has contested elections in the past. While his closeness to party's national president Amit Shah is an open secret, his youthful charm is another factor that the BJP seems to have taken into consideration while consciously building his profile as the leader of the future in Odisha. State party leaders, though, have expectedly refrained from commenting on the issue.

FOOTNOTE

Next in line

The succession debate is raging in the wake of former chief minister J.B. Patnaik's death.

Since his son Pruthvi apparently seems to have little interest in politics, his son-in-law, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik is seen by many as the natural heir to the political legacy of the stalwart.

However, if Congress sources are to be believed, the demise of JB might effectively have scuttled the chances of Soumya's return to the Congress from which he was expelled more than a year ago for alleged anti-party activities.

“Till JB was alive, respect for him might have made the leadership rethink on his expulsion. But now the chances appear to be remote,” said a senior Congress leader. Soumya, though, couldn’t care less.