Abrupt removal

When Roopa Mishra was removed from the post of director of the National Rural Health Mission and posted as labour commissioner and director of the Employees State Insurance last November, the move had raised many eyebrows. Tongues are wagging yet again with this dynamic IAS officer now being eased out of the Odisha State Medical Corporation which, given her pioneering work in the organisation, is widely seen as her baby. Be it creating warehouse facilities for drugs, quality testing or setting up drug distribution centres, she had done it all. But even as she was planning some futuristic moves came the news of her abrupt removal, thus bringing her association with the state health sector to an end. Roopa, said sources, was paying the price for her being too efficient, which had turned many of her influential colleagues and seniors green with envy.

Shah absent

Many are still wondering why BJP president Amit Shah failed to show up at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s farmers’ rally at Bargarh. The programme that followed public meetings and conventions in the area by both Congress and BJP on farmers’ issues was preceded by a publicity blitz. Shah’s participation was not only expected but had actually been confirmed by some BJP leaders. Later, it transpired that Shah chose to avoid the event as he feared probing questions from journalists on his and the Prime Minister’s reluctance to take on chief minister Naveen Patnaik. “Modi, who did not utter a word against Naveen during his address, managed to evade scribes as he left Bargarh after the rally. But they would certainly have collared Shah which would have been embarrassing,” confided a BJP leader. 

Publicity axe

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, which has launched a drive to beautify the city, may wince at it, but neither the government nor the BJD seems to care. They have plastered the city with posters and cut-outs of the late Biju Patnaik, whose birth centenary celebrations began with a bang on Saturday. Even road dividers, where trees and shrubs had been planted with great care, have not been spared. As of now, there are no rules in place that stop political parties or even government departments from engaging in this kind of publicity blitz. However, BMC officials are reported to be thinking of ways to curb the trend. Sources said, the civic body may soon come up with firm guidelines in this regard.   

Unusual order

Government functionaries, MPs and MLAs of the areas chief minister visits are being sounded in advance about his official programmes is routine. But one wonders if the collector of a district where the chief minister’s programme is taking place can also be asked to inform BJD party functionaries about the chief minister’s schedule. However unusual though it may seem, such instructions were issued to Khurda collector ahead of Naveen’s programmes on Saturday that happened to be his late father Biju Patnaik’s 100th birth anniversary. The faxed communique from a joint secretary to the chief minister asked the collector to inform not only MPs, MLAs and the zila parishad president, but also the BJD functionaries of the district about Naveen’s programme.

One step up

Former minister and BJD’s Koraput strongman Rabi Narayan Nanda, who had been lying low since his shock defeat to Congress veteran Tara Prasad Bahinipati in the last election, is trying hard to keep afloat politically. Of late, he has been making the right kind of noise on sensitive issues such as the Polavaram project which is likely to submerge a number of tribal hamlets in Malkangiri district. Aware that this would help him strike the right chord with chief minister Naveen Patnaik, he has ensured that he remains a step ahead of his Congress rival on this particular issue which the Congress, too, had taken up in a big way in the past. “On Polavaram, Nanda has outsmarted Bahinipati and this would help him gain a lot of traction,” said an observer. 

FOOTNOTE

Right pretext

With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi likely to visit the state in near future, state party chief Prasad Harichandan has gone ballistic against the Naveen Patnaik government for trying to revive the Niyamgiri bauxite mining project. 

Calling the government anti-tribal, he has slammed it for allegedly trying to handover the Niyamgiri hills to a multinational mining giant. 

Congress insiders say that Harichandan, who had been tongue-tied on many crucial issues for past sometime, is suddenly all fire and brimstone over Niyamgiri, because the issue is close to the heart of Rahul who had visited the area in the past and even described himself as the “sipahi” (soldier) of the local Kondh tribals, who would fight for their cause in Delhi.