Bhubaneswar: Expressing strong displeasure over administrative apathy and a lack of accountability, Deputy Chief Minister and Agriculture Minister KV Singh Deo on Thursday issued a stern warning to officials of the Directorate of Horticulture, emphasising that the Odisha government will not function as a “rubber stamp.”
Speaking at the state-level conference at Krushi Bhawan in Bhubaneswar, KV set a strict seven-day deadline for department personnel to submit pending evaluation reports on farmers’ exposure trips and expedite lagging cold storage development projects across the state.
The Minister stressed that the state’s agricultural budget has been doubled from ₹7,000 crore to nearly ₹14,000 crore to ₹15,000 crore, to deliver concrete outcomes for grassroots farmers rather than serve as mere entertainment. “This budget is not for entertainment,” he remarked, expressing dissatisfaction over administrative apathy and failure to keep the government informed about departmental activities and expenditure.
He warned non-performing staff that failure to maintain transparency, conduct regular field visits, and present detailed expenditure reports would lead to firm disciplinary action. “The state government is not a rubber stamp, nor am I a rubber stamp. You are not running the government. We are. Whoever does not accept this will have to go home,” he asserted.
He particularly mentioned the delays in submitting evaluation reports on farmers’ exposure trips to other states and abroad, and put a complete freeze on further interstate and overseas training programmes until officials furnish pending performance assessments. “While the government routinely approves lists of farmers for advanced training, no follow-up reports detailing the impact of these trips have reached my office or the department secretary even after two years in Office,” he said.
Dismissing arguments from horticulture directors that reports were processed internally, the minister insisted that evaluation data must reach the approving authority to confirm whether public funds are yielding tangible agricultural gains for Odisha.
Addressing post-harvest infrastructure bottlenecks, Singh Deo voiced severe concern over delays in setting up cold storage facilities, including planned units in Puri district and a broader initiative to establish 58 cold storages across all sub-divisions. He criticised officers for failing to execute and process online applications submitted through the state’s single-window portal, reminding them that elected leaders are directly answerable to the public, the Odisha Legislative Assembly, the Cabinet, and the media regarding project delays.
Joining the conference, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Secretary Sachin Ramachandra Jadhav urged officers to adopt genuine empathy and proactive execution, reinforcing that government subsidies, crop diversification programmes, and modern farming inputs must reach rural cultivators without bureaucratic friction.