ONE-YEAR BALANCE SHEET SUDARSAN MAHARANA
Bhubaneswar, May 20: The ruling Biju Janata Dal is all set to enter the second year of its fourth consecutive term in governance in Orissa with a claim that it has lived upto people’s expectations and implemented several of its promises made in the assembly polls- 2014. What makes it hold its head high, in particular, are the several social welfare schemes that it has set in motion in the first year of its new term.
The government, however, failed to minimise discontentment among the middle class over lack of overall development for the state, failure to push major industrial and other projects, and lack of initiatives to provide jobs to the educated youths. The long-held freeze on government jobs continued, affecting most departments and hurting the education and healthcare sectors in major ways.
BJD, ruling the state since 2000, bounced back to power for the record fourth time in a row last May under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. From the Biju Express way and the ‘Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana’ schemes to the Rs 5 a meal and ‘Niramaya’ scheme, the party and its government made several right moves to keep the people –the disadvantaged sections of the society — on its side.
In fact, several welfare schemes were announced by the government through the year. Shortly after taking over, the government announced the ‘Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana’ aimed at turning all the Kuccha houses to Pucca houses. Another election promise, the ‘Biju Expressway’ project – a Rs 3,000crore road project to connect KBK districts and four other backward districts with Chhattishgarh – was set in motion in August last.
In April this year, the government launched a scheme ‘Aahar’ to offer meals at Rs 5 to the urban poor in five major cities. It also launched ‘Niramaya’ with a Rs 200crore budget to provide free drugs to the poor. It announced a two-year extension in the retirement age of government employees, place-based incentives for doctors, increase in seat reservations for SC-ST students from the existing 22 per cent to 38 per cent in the higher education sector, as per the promises made by the party in the last elections.
The government passed a Rs 85,000crore annual budget for the 2015-16 fiscal which was bigger in size compared to last fiscal. Good tidings came its way with the opening up of the mining sector and increase in royalties, that would fetch additional resources in a major way to take development forward.
During the one year, the party and its government faced embarrassments as well. The arrest of a BJD MLA and a parliamentarian by CBI in the multi-crore chit-fund (ponzi) scam hurt the image of the ruling party. Similarly, involvement of some party leaders in the government housing scheme (DQ) scam, the Ghangapatna land scam, reports about school girls getting pregnant in tribal areas and hostels, failure of the administrative mechanism to contain the jaundice outbreak and the CAG report on certain irregularities in governmental functioning are the other major issues exploited to some extent by a functionally weak Opposition – the Congress and the BJP, to sully the image of the BJD and its government.
Despite all these, however, the BJD won the Kandhamal Lok-Sabha by-poll in October. It also registered a landslide win in the recent Urban Local Body (ULB) polls, and swept to power in all the 9 ULBs where the polls were held in April – May this year.
The government drew criticism over the poor arrangements for the ongoing Nabakalebara festival, besides the role of some party leaders in the chit fund scam. While Opposition parties in the state continue to term the one year of BJD’s rule this term as an indictment year, BJD spokesperson Amar Satpathy said, “The Opposition parties are criticising government initiatives for the sake of criticism. People have faith in the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government. We have announced schemes in all major sectors such as Education, health and agriculture and initiated long-term projects for development of the state.”