Naveen Patnaik greets others on his way to the secretariat in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, May 21: Scams, growing attacks on women and rising Maoist violence have been the highlights of the past four years of chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s third term in office, which also saw populism reaching new heights.

While the multi-crore mining scam continues to cast its shadow on the government with Opposition clamour for a CBI inquiry reaching a crescendo, the chief minister has also been accused of showing favour to particular companies in recommending the allotment of coal blocks.

In between, rotten dal supplied for the mid-day meal scheme claimed a senior minister while another escaped narrowly after two government houses were found to have been allotted in his and his wife’s name.

Embarrassment for the government was acute when Plus Two examination question papers for two subjects were leaked on successive days leading to the demand for the resignation of higher education minister Badri Narayan Patra. Patra, however, has refused to oblige the Opposition. The scandal has forced the government to have another look at the whole examination system.

The state was shocked when a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Pipili, barely 20km from here, was “gang-raped” on November 28, 2011, with local police allegedly refusing to register a case. Arrests in the case, which led to the resignation of a minister, were made only after investigation was handed over to the crime branch. The victim died in hospital after battling for life for nearly five months.

Yet another ruling party leader finds himself in a soup over the mysterious death of Ayush doctor Madhabilata Pradhan, whose body was found on the railway tracks near Malatipur station in Puri district last year. The National Commission for Women, which investigated the case, has recommended that the inquiry be handed over to the CBI instead of the state crime branch. The commission also felt that there was an attempt to obstruct its inquiry with a view to protecting a ruling party MLA.

There was also a major toxic alcohol tragedy last year leading to the resignation of former excise minister A.U. Singhdeo. He stepped down owning “moral responsibility” after 33 persons succumbed to alcohol of dubious origin in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

The Maoist problem in the state acquired an altogether new dimension as the rebels resorted to kidnappings to blackmail the government for the first time. The ruling BJD found itself at sea when a group of gun-toting radicals abducted the then Malkangiri collector, R. Vineel Krishna, in February 2011. With no experience in dealing with this kind of a crisis, the Naveen Patnaik regime was finally forced to negotiate with Maoist-appointed interlocutors, making some humiliating compromises in the process.

This was, however, just the beginning as two more kidnappings by the Maoists shook the state last year. In March last year, a group of rebels led by Sabysachi Panda, who was later expelled from CPI(Maoist), abducted two Italians from Kandhamal district.

This was followed by the kidnapping of a ruling BJD legislator in Koraput district by another group of radicals.

On the political front, Naveen received a major jolt when his one-time confidante Pyari Mohan Mohapatra made an alleged coup attempt against him on May 29 last year. This was the first sign of a serious rift in the BJD, which is yet to recover from the shock even though Mohapatra now has formed a political party of his own called Odisha Jan Morcha.

Rattled and apprehensive of the future, Naveen has resorted to rank populism with elections staring him in the face. While he has further subsidised the public distribution system rice, making it available at Re 1 a kg at a huge cost to the exchequer, the youth and the elderly have also been handed out sops.

Opposition leaders, however, appear far from convinced. National BJP vice-president Jual Oram described the past four years as completely barren when the government failed to achieve anything. “It was four years of empty statements,” said the leader. State Congress president Jaydev Jena said it was a period of gross misrule when corruption spread to every wing of the government.

On the other hand, BJD general secretary Narendra Swain said the Opposition’s allegations were baseless and that during the past four years the government had worked for the welfare of all sections of people. “We have ensured welfare of farmers and given rice to the poor at Re 1 per kilo. Good roads have been built in various areas. There has been all-round development,” he said.