Bhubaneswar: Moments after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s clarification in Odisha Assembly on chopper expenditure in the last six months, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Jayanarayan Mishra on Monday said that several questions raised by the BJP still remained unanswered.
“People of Odisha have voted for Naveen Patnaik and he is answerable to them and the Assembly. They rejected three questions raised by BJP MLA Nauri Nayak, who had asked for the date on which the official notification, directing his private secretary to tour Odisha, was issued and details on the districts, he was asked to visit, and number of grievances received and funds allocated by different departments to address them,” he told mediapersons.
Mishra asserted that if a question is rejected, it mandatory for the ruling party to reply to the member within 5 days. “Three days have passed since and the government is yet to reply to these questions. Instead the CM ‘suo moto’ spoke on the grievances received. What about our questions on how the grievances were addressed and money spent on mobilising people to such meetings and the chopper sorties?” he asked.
Speaking on Naveen’s reference to CMO office, he asked if it comprises just one person.
Mishra also alleged that his microphone was switched off while he was speaking in the House.
Earlier, Naveen defended the tours of officers, led by his secretary VK Pandian, to various districts in the past six months, saying that it was his brainchild to reach out to people by taking the CM grievance cell to their doorsteps after two years of Covid disruptions.
He further said that no excess expenditure was made on the helicopter rides by the officers. “In the last three and half years, the government spent Rs 40 crore on chopper. On an average Rs 1 crore to 1.5 crore is spent on chopper every month. In the past six months when chopper was used intensively to reach out to the people, the average expenditure was the same around Rs 1 crore to 1.5 crore per month,” he added.
