CM Patnaik Defends Private Secretary's Chopper Visits for Grievance Hearings

BHUBANESWAR: The second day of the monsoon session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly on Monday marked pandemonium with Opposition cornering the state government by alleging that democracy had virtually collapsed in the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the major opposition in the state legislature, had brought an adjournment motion captioned - “Who is superior- A minister or a secretary?”  Since the adjournment motion was not accepted, the BJP members created a ruckus.

The BJD, on the other hand, alleged in the House that Odisha was neglected by National Highway Authorities (NHAI), leading to exchange of words between the treasury bench and opposition members.

As the House witnessed uproarious scenes, Speaker Pramila Mallick adjourned the House till 4 pm.

Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly, senior BJP lawmaker Mohan Charan Majhi said, “We had given an adjournment notice on collapse of democracy in Odisha and secretaries enjoying powers of ministers in the state. However, it is unfortunate the Speaker rejected it without citing any reason.”

In fact, through the adjournment notice, the Opposition planned to highlight the whirlwind tour by the CM’s private secretary VK Pandian to various places in the state in the pretext of grievance hearing.

 The Opposition alleged that the CM’s private secretary Pandian spent nearly Rs 600 crore in the past six months as he hopped over 190 places by a chopper.

Making a separate statement in the House, CM Naveen Patnaik said, “The mammoth grievance redressal exercise was carried out in more than 190 locations in a period of six months. A total of 57, 442 petitions were collected and as of date, 43, 536 petitions have been resolved or disposed of.”

The CM justified the chopper tour by his private secretary saying, “It would have taken one and half years to do the same exercise by road. Everyday conducting three to five meetings in different locations is humanly impossible within a window of 10 am to 3 pm," said Mr Patnaik.

According to Patnaik, in the last three and half years about Rs 40 crore has been spent on choppers. On an average, Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 crore is spent on choppers every month. In the past six months when choppers were used extensively to reach out to the people, the average expenditure was the same around Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 crore per month.

“It is completely false and misleading to say that excess expenditure has been made,” CM said in his statement.

“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’ grievances redressal exercises carried out by any government in the country,” Mr Patnaik said.