BHUBANESWAR: Naveen Patnaik turns 75 today. And as announced, the Odisha Chief Minister will shun celebration of any kind. He has asked party loyalists, supporters and people in general not to visit Naveen Nivas and instead spend the day helping others, donate blood and even plasma wherever possible. For the last few years, the tallest leader of the State has been skipping celebration of his birthdays as Odisha is routinely visited by natural disasters of one kind or the other.
Naveen took up leadership of the State immediately after one such disaster - the 1999 Super Cyclone and ever since, has travelled the distance - changing a natural calamity-prone Odisha to a role model of disaster resilience and transforming a population which lived in subsistence and self-contentment to one that seeks grander scheme of things.
The backwardness and stories of poverty are things of past as good governance has grabbed the driver’s seat under a transformed agenda that looks towards the future.
From changing the bottomline of poverty through food security and welfare schemes, he has shifted gears in the last one decade. The increased focus on infrastructure, universalisation of health and education, use of technology to deliver public services under 5T strategy signal his readiness to change the pace and direction of governance with time.
Praised for his handling of the Covid pandemic, Naveen brought in more focus to health care delivery and its decentralisation in last few years which is why his Government has been so far been able to absorb the overwhelming demand during the global health crisis. His plan to transform SCB Medical College and Hospital into an AIIMS plus category institution signals his plans for the future. His administration delivered in seven months’ time a new road expansion project which would improve connectivity to the State’s biggest health care institution.
In his fifth term as Chief Minister, Naveen has pushed the transformation of two of its important religious and cultural centres - Puri and Bhubaneswar. Apart from ambitious development and beautification plans for the two centres, he has set his sight on world heritage tags for both.
Massive plans of connectivity, amenities for tourists, landscaping are on the anvil as his administration goes about the twin projects by spending over Rs 4,000 crore. Transforming the religious-cultural landscape of the State is his goal.
Measures such as online land revenue system and urban services, connecting Regional Transport Offices, abolition of agent system and creation of digital infrastructure in every panchayat would create a long-lasting impact on delivery of public services in the years to come.
The most recent addition is ‘Sujal - Drink from Tap Mission’ aiming to provide quality drinking water to over 15 lakh people in 15 towns in a phased manner. The fit-for-consumption water project at ` 1,300 crore is billed as one of its kind project for urban areas in the country, another of his deft touch in changing the urban life in the State.
His push for better education in rural heartlands of the State through Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya across all blocks is a quiet attempt to bring school education on par with CBSE standards and has paid dividends with students delivering the results. Naveen has planned to consolidate the project.
All these and more have got primacy in his administration even as the State faced one of the most challenging crisis in the form Covid-19 pandemic during his 20 year rule when Naveen showed the way by effectively dealing with huge influx of migrants and creating a reliable health infrastructure.
Naveen @ 75
Praised for his handling of the Covid pandemic, Naveen brought in more focus to health care delivery and its decentralisation in last few years which is why it has been able to absorb the overwhelming demand during the global health crisis