No ‘Ministers Vs Officers’ In Odisha, CM Naveen Patnaik Tells Assembly, Justifies Chopper Visits By Grievance Cell

Bhubaneswar: Amid opposition allegation of elected leaders being sidelined in Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made statement in the Assembly on Monday and asserted that there is no clash between the roles of Ministers and officers in the state.

It is not ‘Ministers versus officers’ in Odisha, he said, adding that CM grievance cell is always handled by CMO and Ministers are not required to attend the same in Bhubaneswar. The whole exercise is being done in a decentralised and transparent manner, the Chief Minister emphasised.

Once petitions are received, they are sent to the departments concerned. “Where is the issue of ministers versus officers in this?  Ministers have played a major role as head of the departments in resolving the petitions.,” the Chief Minister stressed, rejecting the opposition allegation.

The CM’s statement came even as the question hour in the Assembly was stalled as opposition BJP members created a ruckus alleging that democracy has been destroyed in the state. They claimed that Ministers were sidelined as bureaucrats dominated the administration. Both BJP and Congress have been alleging that democracy is in danger in the state due to domination by officers at the cost of elected representatives, including Ministers.

“My government has always given top priority to peoples’ grievance redressal. Before Covid happened the CMO used to hold grievance hearing in Bhubaneswar,” he said.

People from all over the state used to come and submit their grievances and there was a robust system to solve them. When Covid happened the CM grievance cell was closed due to restrictions for almost two years and it was restarted after normalcy returned. “However, post Covid we noticed that the average number of grievances and people coming to grievance cell had come down. Two years of Covid disruption caused dislocation in grievance redressal and I thought of reaching out to the people, by taking the CM grievance cell to the door steps of the people to cover all blocks and urban local bodies of the state in the shortest period possible,” the CM said.

CM grievance cell is handled by the CMO and as per my direction officers from the CMO conducted decentralised grievances cell in all the districts of the state, he said.

“This mammoth exercise was carried out in more than 190 locations over a period of six months. Every day three to five venues were covered and in the process 57442 petitions were collected from the people, and as on date 43536 petitions have been resolved or disposed of. The entire exercise is transparent and technology driven. All the petitions and the action taken reports and the stage of disposal are available in the janasunani portal,” said Naveen.

Legacy issues have been resolved in follow up meetings and within the next two to three months most of these historic issues pending for years together will be resolved. Petitioners are given written replies and phone calls are made on feedback through Mo Sarkar. “I would say with all conviction that-this is one of the biggest and most effective peoples’ grievance redressal exercises carried out by any government in the country,” the Chief Minister said.

All of you may remember that during Covid, I had sent the same team along with senior officers to monitor covid management. When others were inside their homes, the CMO team with other senior officers risking their lives was visiting district after district getting feedback and monitoring covid situation.

It’s teamwork at the highest level and is 3 professionally done in a democratic set up. The aim is to resolve people’s grievances in the best possible manner.

Huge money and time has been saved by the CM Grievance Cell travelling to the door steps of people.

“As regards chopper use, I would like to clarify that it would have taken one and half years to do the same exercise by road vis a vis by chopper. Every day conducting three to five meetings in different locations is humanly impossible within a window of 10 am to 3 pm which is convenient to people. In the last three and half years we have spent about Rs 40 crores on chopper,” the CM said.

On an average Rs 1 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 to 1.5 crore per month, he said.

“It’s completely false and misleading to say that excess expenditure has been made. CM grievance cell has been conducted in all the constituencies in a very professional manner. This exercise was also used to explain to people about the schemes of the state government, the ongoing projects in their areas and the funds sanctioned for the same. It was my specific instruction to give timelines for resolving grievances,” the Chief Minister said.

“Opposition members should be happy that so many grievances in their areas have also been resolved. I do not understand how someone can oppose the solving of people’s grievances. Such opposition is anti-people and people will give them a befitting reply for such attitude,” he said.

“After all we are in public service and peoples’ grievances are our topmost priority. People are happy… peoples’ representatives are happy …Opposition members should not be unhappy because of political reasons,” said Naveen.

Stressing that people come first for his government, the Chief Minister said that resolving people’s issues is a top priority and he will continue to do so in the best possible manner.