Good times for Ray

Call it coincidence but former Union minister Dilip Ray’s hotel business has grown by leaps and bounds since he parted company with the Biju Janata Dal following differences with chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Proud owner of six swanky hotels, of which three are located in the state, Ray recently added another feather to his cap by acquiring the Oberoi Palm Beach at Gopalpur, a beach town near Berhampur. Ray, who joined the BJP before the last Assembly elections following a stint in the Congress, is quite excited about his new acquisition which, his wellwishers hope, will bring him luck in politics as well.

Friends again

Compulsions of flood politics has made state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik patch up with his bête noire and former party MLA Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohaptra. Their cold war apparently came to an end when Patnaik and Mohapatra flew in the same helicopter on a recent trip to the flood-hit areas. At the news conference that followed the visit, they sat next to each other signalling the end of hostilities. Sources in the Congress said that Patnaik had decided to patch up with Mohapatra realising his worth as a strategist at a time when the party was engaged in a war of words with the ruling Biju Janada Dal over floods. “Patnaik knows that if Congress has to outsmart rivals in making political capital out of the floods, he needs people like Mohapatra with him,” said a party leader.

‘Cool’ Surya

The normally calm revenue and disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patro fought hard to retain his composure at a recent media briefing on floods when asked about former irrigation minister and BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra’s charge that faulty management of the Hirakud reservoir was primarily responsible for the calamity. “That’s not true, not true at all,” an agitated Patro protested. When surprised journalists sought to know from the minister why a simple query had him so exercised, Patro pulled himself together instantly and told them with an apologetic smile: “No, no I am cool!” .

Flood insight

For ministers and bureaucrats, the worst aspect of the floods has been their regular grilling by scribes looking for new insights into the tragedy apart from interesting titbits. Some of the bureaucrats passed the muster admirably impressing the journalists and their political masters alike with their thorough homework. Some occasionally offered interesting though funny explanations to tricky questions. On September 14, the fifth day after a massive discharge from the Hirakud reservoir triggered floods, when a scribe asked special relief commissioner Pradipta Mohapatra as to why the number of human casualties (22) was more than the number of cattle deaths (20), pat came the reply: “That’s because animals are natural swimmers!”

Rural factor

Only a few months ago, the health department was grappling with a crisis of sorts with dengue threatening to acquire epidemic proportions in certain areas of the state. The situation had turned so bad that the Centre was forced to send a team of experts to visit the affected areas and suggest measures to contain the spread of the disease. So, when floods hit the state, fears about the recurrence of dengue cases in the affected areas mounted. Surprisingly, no dengue cases have so far been reported from the flood zone. Asked for an explanation, health secretary Anu Garg said tongue in cheek: “Dengue mosquitoes are sophisticated, they don’t bite people in rural areas.”

Footnote

Homework done

Crisis is the real test of man. And chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik seems to have passed this test with flying colours. As the state reeled from floods, the state’s top bureaucrat handled the situation with remarkable cool guiding his officers and personally supervising the relief operation. He was a picture of confidence even at the regular media briefings on floods fielding questions with elan and coming to the rescue of ministers and colleagues when required. Having done his homework thoroughly, he was never once found fumbling or at a loss for information during the briefings. No wonder he won kudos all around.