Bhubaneswar: The BJD government led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik touched another milestone Friday with the completion of the first year of its fifth term in office.
On this day last year, Naveen took oath as the Chief Minister of Odisha for the fifth consecutive term. Beating anti-incumbency and a BJP wave across the nation, the BJD won 113 seats in the 147-member Assembly with a vote share of 44.7 per cent in 2019. In 2014, the regional party had secured 117 seats with 43.7 per cent vote share. This victory enhanced the confidence of the party and encouraged it to work for the state with added vigour.
In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, neither the BJP nor the state government will organise any special function to celebrate the occasion. However, the Chief Minister will hold the state Cabinet meeting followed by a meeting of the Council of Ministers to take stock of the situation in the state and announce important decisions to mark the day, sources said.
In the last 365 days, the government has achieved many goals, including combating the Covid-19 pandemic and restoring normalcy after the extremely severe cyclone Fani hit the state May 3, 2019.
In the first year of the fifth term, the Naveen government has given maximum importance to two initiatives – ‘Mo Sarkar’ and ‘Five Ts’ principle. ‘Five Ts’ stand for the parameters – team work, technology, transparency, transformation and time limit.
Soon after the new government took shape, it adopted the ‘5T’ governance model to hasten the public service delivery system and bring more efficiency in the administration. Under the ‘5T’ governance initiative, the government has taken major decisions, including integration of directorates with concerned administrative departments, premature retirement policy to remove officers and employees of doubtful integrity or inefficiency, out of turn promotion to employees for exemplary work and establishment of ‘promotion Adalats’ to ensure timely promotion.
Under the ‘5T’ initiative, the government launched the ‘Mo Sarkar’ Gandhi Jayanti last year to bridge the gap between people and the government. Under ‘Mo Sarkar’, everyone from the Chief Minister to ministers and senior officers seek direct feedback from citizens who visit government offices for various services.
In the first phase, ‘Mo Sarkar’ was launched in hospitals and police stations and later all departments have been brought under its purview. For this initiative, the government has received appreciation from various quarters.
Currently, the BJD government is combating the Covid-19 pandemic effectively. Odisha is the first state in the country to announce a lockdown. This aside, Odisha is the only state where every district has a special hospital to treat Covid-19 patients.
In more recent times, the state government has successfully dealt with the cyclone Amphan, which affected the coastal districts.
Senior BJD leader and Media & Public Relations Advisor to the government, Manas Ranjan Mangaraj, said, “The state is prospering and moving in the right direction under the leadership of our Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. It has achieved new milestones in disaster management, women empowerment, industrialisation, poverty alleviation and many more.”
“Presently, we have put all our efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and solve the migrants’ crisis. We are confident that we will emerge successful,” he said.
Biswa Bhusan Mohapatra, OP