Milky way

The government was rattled when dairy farmers from around the state recently protested against the non-procurement of milk by Odisha State Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (Omfed) by pouring milk on the streets. But even as it scurried to resolve the crisis through bureaucratic interventions, agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy appeared unfazed. He sought to make it clear that he had little role to play in the matter as Omfed was an autonomous body. Then, in typical fashion, he went on to advise dairy farmers that instead of wasting their milk by pouring it on the streets, they should distribute it among the needy. Some of the milk producers actually followed his advice.

Potato grouse

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s congratulatory message to his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on Facebook drew hostile reactions from his followers who recalled that Trinamul Congress chief had in 2014 blocked supply of potatoes from her state to Odisha triggering a crisis. “Congratulate for what..don’t u remember that it’s the same ugly lady who stopped potato supply to Odisha at the border and potato in our state capital has increased to Rs 80/kg while Rs 8/kg in her capital,” said someone in response to Naveen’s post. Another post said, “But sir, she will not supply potatoes... Please do something. Let us not depend on her.” Mamata may have won Bengal, but Odisha is a different picture.

Loo gripe

The state government’s “hybrid toilet” project has left people both amused and confused. The majority perceives the concept as old wine in a new bottle. “Earlier, there were public toilets and then separate toilets for slum dwellers. Now they are going to have common toilets and this is what they are calling hybrid toilets. What is new about it except the name?” asked a Bhubaneswar resident who felt that most of the new projects being planned under the “smart city” drive were meaningless. “The truth is they will be collecting more money from us in the form of tax but there will be little improvement in public facilities,” said another citizen. 

Review worry

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s decision to review the performance of his ministers has set the cat among the pigeons. If sources are to be believed, several ministers who rarely visited their offices have suddenly become regular and have started spending long hours poring over pending files. There is also a race among the ministers to complete the pending projects as the chief minister is said to have taken a serious view of this. The ministers also appear to be jittery as the talk of a possible ministry rejig is in the air and the exercise, when undertaken, would be based strictly on their performance. 

Busy Basant

State BJP president Basant Panda was among the most accessible of the party MLAs till he took up his new assignment in 
January. Since then, he seems to have become so busy that he rarely answers phone calls from newspersons, especially the representatives of print media. Unable to access him, these journalists have found it more convenient to talk to his colleagues who have been generous in offering comments on a range of issues, some of which rocked the Assembly, the latest session of which came to an end very recently. 

“We wonder what keeps him so busy that he can’t respond to our calls,” said the representative of a local newspaper. 

 

FOOTNOTE

King’s guests

If sources are to be believed, members of the central team that visited Puri on Friday to inspect the rather precarious condition of the 12th century Jagannath temple’s Jagmohan (prayer hall) were pleasantly surprised by the hospitality of Gajapati Dibya Singh Deb, the scion of the local royal family, with whom they held elaborate discussions on the issue. The Gajapati, who is considered to be the first representative of Lord Jagannath, not only explained the situation to the team members, including Union culture secretary and the director-general of Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI), but also offered them mahaprasad (cooked food offered to the deities everyday). The team could not have expected a better gift from him.