Dented image

The clean and honest image of steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty has been seriously dented following the cheating scandal in which two persons were recently arrested for duping a Jamshedpur-based mining company. Protestations of innocence by the minister notwithstanding, the Opposition seems hell bent on putting him on the gibbet. The Opposition has gone for the minister’s jugular following reports that one of the arrested persons had past links with the ruling party. More importantly, the incident has revived public interest in the multi-crore mining scam, the biggest scandal to have hit Orissa in the last few decades. Not only is the personal image of Mohanty at stake for the government, but also the credibility of the chief minister who had promised to bring the culprits in the mining scam to the book.

Angry Damodar

Former agriculture minister Dr Damodar Rout seems to have become bolder following his exit from the Naveen Patnaik ministry. Looking more combative than ever in the past, the veteran from Jagatsinghpur has, in the recent past, launched verbal barbs at his bête noire Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, the man at the centre of the parallel power centre debate in the ruling Biju Janata Dal. But while Rout’s attacks on Mohapatra were expected, what has taken political observers by complete surprise is his latest outburst against revenue minister Surya Narayan Patro. Both the leaders got into a virtual slanging match following the appearance of a report in a vernacular daily quoting Patro that his former cabinet colleague would have been better off had he seriously taken his advice to keep off controversies. Apparently it was the condescending tone of Patro’s remarks that got Rout’s goat but his well-wishers would expect him to be less impulsive in future.

Frustrated Biswal

Frustration seems to have got the better of former chief minister Hemanand Biswal, who was recently in the news for openly voicing his disappointment over Orissa’s claims being ignored during Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s ministry rejig in Delhi. Shocked by Biswal’s remarks, which flew in the face of party’s avowed policy of not raising such issues in public, state Congress leaders pointed out that the criticism of the tribal veteran from western Orissa was prompted by selfish motives as he himself has been eyeing a berth in the Union cabinet. “That is why he has been harping on western Orissa going unrepresented in the UPA ministry. It is actually his frustration which is showing,” said a party leader.

Good gesture

Politicians are known to be selfish and prone to making unabashed attempts at stealing the limelight from rivals and colleagues. However, newly anointed agriculture minister Pradip Maharathy proved to be different when soon after receiving the award for highest agricultural productivity in New Delhi on behalf of Orissa, he acknowledged the contribution of his predecessors in making the state self reliant in foodgrain production. The honesty of Maharathy, who is commonly perceived to be a loudmouthed braggart, would go a long away in changing his public image. “But he should also work hard at improving things further on the agriculture front. He must carry forward the good work done by his predecessors,” said a colleague of the minister.

Complaints galore

Health minister Prasanna Acharya has tried every trick in the bag to check the truancy of doctors in government hospitals, but the problem continues to be intractable. There are still complaints galore from rural hospitals in far-flung districts about doctors skipping work. In the past, there have been several experiments to contain rampant absenteeism of serving medicos in government hospitals with one of the districts trying out the webcam method of communicating with doctors to ensure their physical presence on duty. Much before that, there was yet another attempt at monitoring the attendance of doctors by asking the local panchayati raj representatives to keep a watch on them. But a successful cure to the malady still continues to elude the government.

Jual’s struggles

State BJP president Jual Oram is struggling to regain his hold on Sundergarh, his Lok Sabha constituency.
Apart from rivals in other parties such as the sitting Congress MP Hemanand Biswal and Birmitrapur MLA George Tirkey, who has contested the seat in the past, Oram is also facing a threat from within his party. While Bonei MLA Bhimsen Choudhary, once his staunch follower, is no more with him having fallen out in the wake of Rajya Sabha horsetrading scandal, there is a murmur of discontent among some other local leaders as well.
These leaders, who enjoyed the fruits of power when BJP was ruling the state in
tandem with Biju Janata Dal, are still unable to come to terms with the collapse of party’s alliance with BJD. And they hold Oram partly responsible for it.