BHUBANESWAR: Former chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik, who joined the Congress recently, lashed out at the Odisha government on Monday for prevailing corruption and lack of transparency at all levels of the administration.
Targeting the 5T initiative of the state government, Patnaik, who was also the principal secretary to chief minister Naveen Patnaik for six years, said it is only a slogan. If each department is working well, there is absolutely no need for this 5T, he said.
The state government has a chief secretary, development commissioner and efficient secretaries for effective governance. Earlier works were assigned to them, but now there is no such scope. The bureaucrats are aggrieved these days as they are not being able to work independently, he said.
Alleging that nowadays there is a closed door government in Odisha, Patnaik said the atmosphere has become suffocating. “Odias are being harassed in Odisha. Contractors from the state are not getting work. Unemployment is growing and labourers are migrating. The government also does not even have data on the number of labourers (dadans) who have left Odisha,” he said. Though Odisha government claims to have received thousand of crores of investment proposals, how many people from the state are getting employed, he asked and added that even transporters are being engaged from outside the state.
The former chief secretary said that everything is being controlled from the third floor now where even journalists are not allowed. This shows what kind of a transparency prevails in Odisha. There is a great difference between the Naveen Patnaik under whom he worked as the principal secretary and the chief minister now.
Referring to the murder of former minister Naba Kishore Das, Patnaik said from videos of the incident which he had seen the dismissed ASI may not have killed him. The Crime Branch should try to unravel the truth and if it fails, the case should be handed over to the CBI.”
BJD says ex-CS wanted to join party
Bhubaneswar: The BJD came down on former chief secretary Bijay Patnaik who joined Congress recently for his continuous allegations against the state government by stating he is speaking the language of BJP. BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said it is well known how eager Patnaik was to attain power after he retired from government service. For this reason he wanted to join BJD and go to Rajya Sabha. Now he has joined Congress and speaking like a spokesperson of BJP, he said, adding it seems he will do so in future too.