The controversy triggered by opposition Biju Janata Dal’s allegations that the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar had turned into the war room for Jharkhand elections has left a bad taste in the mouth. The overwhelming opinion is that the regional party should have refrained from dragging the office of the governor into politics. The all-round condemnation evoked by the allegations is in sharp contrast to the praise for the good work being done by the Mohan Majhi government.
Controversies are part of politics but they assume an unsavoury character when the target is Raj Bhavan. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the main opposition party, did exactly that when it alleged that the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar had turned into a war room for Jharkhand elections. The context was recent visits of Assam Chief Minister and BJP’s co-election in-charge for Jharkhand Himanta Biswa Sarma and former Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu to meet governor Raghubar Das who happens to be the former chief minister of Jharkhand.
The BJD alleged that the governor’s residence was being used for political manoeuvring. Speculation in this regard was fuelled by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s visit to the neighbouring state for campaigning. The leaders of the regional party even sought a clarification in this regard arguing that the Governor should be above party politics. It also raked up the issue of alleged assault on an assistant section officer (ASO) by the Governor’s son during Rath Yatra in Puri even though the government has assured that the matter is being looked into and justice will be done.
However, considering that everything was in the realm of speculation it was completely unfair on the part of the main opposition party to target the Raj Bhavan the way it did. State BJP chief and former minister Manmohan Samal said as much while advising BJD leaders to keep the office of the governor out of politics. “Entire Odisha is open for the BJD to do politics. They (BJD) should spare the Raj Bhavan,” he remarked.
The office of former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu also clarified that no political issue was discussed during his meeting with the former Jharkhand chief minister at the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar. In a post on X, Naidu’s office said the visit was a courtesy call. “No political motive should be ascribed to this courtesy call and dragging the Office of the former Vice President of India into a political controversy of this nature is patently unfair,” it said.
His office clarified that the former Vice President was in Bhubaneswar to attend the convocation of Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) as chief guest as scheduled months ahead. Since former Vice Presidents stay at the Raj Bhavan in keeping with the protocol it is customary for the Governor and other dignitaries to call on a former VP as a matter of courtesy.
While the controversy is bound to subside with the passage of time it has certainly left a bad taste in the mouth. The opposition instead of indulging in such stunts should be focusing on more constructive things. Criticising the government is its right but criticism should be both valid and constructive.
The good thing is that the Mohan Majhi government instead of being bogged down by such allegations continues to focus its attention on problem-solving and developmental work. In a very important move the Puri district administration recently sold 10,322.49 kg arpan rice through a tender process for Rs 2.86 crore. The owner of a rice mill in Nimapara was awarded the tender as he quoted the highest price.
Before the inauguration of the Srimandir Parikrama corridor by the then chief minister Naveen Patnaik, over 14 tonnes of rice along with betelnut and dakshina was collected from devotees across the state through ‘arpan rath’. While Rs 2.5 crore was collected through dakshina, the arpan rice brought from various areas of the state was stored at different facilities in the town.
The Suar-Mahasuar Nijog (association of temple cooks) of Srimandir was given two tonnes of rice to prepare mahaprasad for distribution among devotees. The arrangement continued for a couple of months but was stopped for various reasons. During the last 10 months, the quality of rice had deteriorated. The temple cooks said the rice had turned stale and unfit to prepare mahaprasad.
In another important move Central PSU ITI Limited has offered to set up a colocation data centre and cloud service in Odisha which can be utilised by the IT industry in the state. ITI Ltd has a hi-tech tier-III data centre at Bengaluru with colocation, dedicated or managed services and cloud services. The MeitY-empanelled cloud services provider is regularly audited by Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) directorate for services including government community cloud-GCC (caged services), public and private cloud.
Home to hundreds of large and small IT and professional services consultancy organisations including Infosys, TCS, IBM, Tech Mahindra, Deloitte, Mindtree, Accenture and Capgemini, Odisha has a strong demand for data centre services to support IT infrastructure needs. ITI Ltd has proposed the Electronics and Information Technology department for the data centre and cloud services. “The government and companies can reduce latency and improve performance with greater proximity to high-speed networks and other services apart from lowering down their cost of ownership for infrastructure,” it said.
The state currently has two data centres, one by OCAC to meet the growing needs of digital Odisha initiatives, and the other by national data centre by NIC to meet the demands of digital India initiatives. OCAC is expanding its state data centre. Besides, two more are coming up including the greenfield data centre and enterprise computing and cybersecurity training institute of RBI in the city.
Sources said the proposal of ITI Ltd has been received and a decision on the colocation data centre and cloud services is yet to be taken. “The state government has an independent policy which offers incentives for setting up data centres. A number of enterprises have evinced interest to set up data centres, which will play a pivotal role in providing improved operations and management control while minimising the overall costs associated with data management, deployment, and related expenditure,” said a reliable source.
There are also reports that the central government is planning to organise the 18th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Bhubaneswar in January next year. This will be followed by an investment summit (Utkarsh Odisha: Make in Odisha Conclave 2025) in the city.
The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas has been celebrated on January 9 every year since 2003 to mark the contribution of the Overseas Indian community in the development of India. The last Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention was held from January 8 to 10, 2023 at Indore in Madhya Pradesh as the partner state.
The ministers of the BJP government in the state have been working tirelessly to ensure that welfare schemes are carried out in the most transparent manner with quality ensured. Recently revenue and disaster management minister Suresh Pujari took the residents of Sambalpur by surprise when he queued up at the Aahaar Kendra near Jail Chowk of the city and had lunch with them.
The minister bought a coupon and stood in a queue along with his security staff to get food after which he interacted with others while having lunch with them. During his interaction, the minister enquired about the quality of food and other aspects of the Aahaar Kendra. Later, he also spoke to the women staff managing the facility. It is such initiatives which add to the credibility of a government while endearing it to the people.
