Bhubaneswar: The longest-serving Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, turns 75 Friday. With the passing of a year, he is reaching a new height, both in politics and administration.
He was roped into politics by the heavyweights of then Janata Dal in 1997 to take over the mantle of his father Biju Patnaik and to carry forward his legacy. After being elected to Lok Sabha, he became a Union Minister in AB Vajpayee government and in 2000, he became Chief Minister of Odisha. Since then he had been unstoppable in Odisha politics.
Within two decades, the writer-turned politician not only gained popularity but effectively crushed potential threats within the party and nearly obliterated the opposition, first the Congress and now the BJP.
Fairly young in politics with only a little over two decades, he has achieved success and popularity that few leaders in the country can match. His popularity has grown along with his age. In the political landscape of the nation, Patnaik is known as a man with a clean image.
The Chief Minister is known for his welfare-based model of governance. He rolled out schemes starting from Mamata for the birth of a child to Harischandra for conducting the last rites of the poor. He introduced Kalia scheme for providing assistance to more than 50 lakh farmers which is stated to have pushed the Centre to unveil the PM-Kisan Yojana.
After assuming power for the fifth time in a row, Naveen now focuses on improving public service delivery system by adopting a 5T model of governance. The 5Ts are–technology, transparency, teamwork, transformation and time-laid. The entire state administration is working on this model to improve the services provided to the public.
Naveen has became a master in disaster management. After successfully managing many cyclones and floods, he won praise from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for management of Covid-19 pandemic. All kinds of treatment, food and medicine are being provided free of cost to Covid patients in the state. He has made visible improvement in health, education, sports, industrial and infrastructure development in the state.
At 75, he is fit enough to serve the people for a long time. As a video had showed a few months back, Naveen goes through his morning workout regime – jogging, lifting weights, doing lift-ups and sit-ups, pedaling on a stationary bicycle and so on.