The innocuous little egg has gained quite a notoriety in Odisha’s political circles in recent days. It has got Ministers in the Naveen Patnaik Cabinet, ruling party leaders and members in a sweat so much so that a casual mention has them scurrying for cover even in their own familiar and secure stomping grounds. The grand British tradition of egging as a form of political protest seems to have found new homeground in the State with the Opposition latching on to the weapon with gusto. While shoe hurling and ink throwing are fave practices in other parts of the country, Odisha seems to have taken a liking to the sight of messy gooey dribbling on the target.
Egging made a forceful impact last year in February when Youth Congress activists managed to sneak through the security cordon and pelted eggs at the cavalcade of none other than Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. In the face of a strident crackdown by an embarrassed Government on the activists, the form of protest seemed to have taken a backseat but has erupted with the dawn of 2016.
The Congress has once again pulled the weapon out of the quiver to launch a showdown with the Government as the issues of farmer suicides and large-scale bungling in the National Food Security Act (NFSA) implementation have taken centrestage. Egged on by senior leaders, even the likes of former Union minister Jairam Ramesh, Congress workers have unleashed ferocious attacks on their opponents in the Government. In the past fortnight, three ministers have been ambushed by Congress workers at different places. Though they have managed to escape direct fire, they have been left with the embarrassment of the eggs splattered on their vehicles. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sanjay Dasburma and his counterparts Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Law Minister Arun Sahoo have been prime targets, facing attacks at different places from Chhatrapur, Puri, Deogarh to Cuttack.
The recent developments have visibly rattled the Naveen Patnaik establishment as is seen in the recent turn of events. A whole venue at Jaydev Bhawan, where the CM was to attend a national seminar on higher education earlier this month, was vacated mid-event for security re-check just before his arrival. All the participants, including senior academicians and guests, were forced out and subjected to frisking again to doubly ensure that the obnoxious egg did not make its way in. However, while the sunny side sizzling on the vehicles of Ministers has raised political temperature in the State, the key issue of rampant irregularities in NFSA implementation, particularly in selection of beneficiaries, should not lose focus. Inclusion of a number of bogus and ineligible persons in the beneficiary list apart, what has cast a shadow on the Government is that BJD leaders and workers have cornered ration cards under NFSA.
Discovery of Cuttack Mayor Anita Behera getting herself and her whole family enrolled in the NFSA beneficiary list set the ball rolling with subsequent exposes throwing up an extensive list of BJD representatives figuring among beneficiaries. Even as Anita Behera was forced to resign, Baliguda MLA Rajib Patra’s wife cropped up among the beneficiaries. Many elected chairpersons of the urban local bodies and Panchayati raj institutions have also availed ration cards.
Though Odisha was among the early states to adopt NFSA, implementation of the scheme that would provide rice at `2 per kg and wheat at `3 per kg to the ration cardholders was delayed by more than a year on grounds of preparation of a foolproof beneficiary list. But the scale of irregularities is increasingly coming to the fore with reassessment throwing up more than two lakh bogus and ineligible beneficiaries as of now which is expected to rise to three lakh at the end of the exercise. At the same time, some villages have been found to be out of the loop. The Halanbhatta gram panchayat in Tureikela block of Balangir district is a case in point. The GP with seven villages has a population of over 3,500 but not a single eligible beneficiary has found place in the list though NFSA has been under implementation in the district from November 2015.
However, despite the furore over the NFSA bungling, Naveen Patnaik still appears to have retained the faith of the people. The recent sweep of the urban body polls in Baliguda and Champua by BJD is a pointer to his continuing popularity among the masses. He must thus reinforce their trust in his governance by rectifying the mess in earnest, ensuring all and only eligible beneficiaries avail the food security scheme.