Other States - Orissa   

No smooth sail for Government

BHUBANESWAR: If one talks of issues for opposition parties in Orissa, one could safely say that their hands are full. Since Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik took over as Chief Minister for the first time in 2000, the Opposition had not got any major issue except the Kalinga Nagar police firing in January last year. Things, however, have suddenly taken a U turn in favour of Opposition parties.

The turning point came on July 14 this year when a school student spotted seven female foetuses packed in bloodstained polythene bags on the outskirts of Nayagarh town.

Issues of public interest then started falling in the Opposition’s lap one after the other. Soon a widespread fake drug manufacturing and marketing racket came to light making people scared of buying medicines.

The other major issues that followed include the alleged mark sheet scam involving the son of the then School and Mass Education Minister Bishnu Charan Das and large-scale diarrhoea and gastroenteritis deaths in tribal-dominated districts of Rayagada, Koraput and Kalahandi.

Then there were the police lathicharge on agitating farmers at Hirakud on November 6 and canning of teachers at several district headquarter towns on November 17.

The Government was in for trouble when the winter session of the State Assembly began on November 19.

While highlighting the myriad of issues that went against the Government, the Opposition demanded a special discussion on the farmers’ agitation in western region of the State and voting on the question whether water of Hirakud reservoir was meant for farmers or industries.

After stalling the Assembly proceedings for five days consecutively last week, the Opposition has now yet another issue in hand following the Supreme Court order barring Vedanta Alumina from mining Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district.

So far, the ruling Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance has been trying to save its skin by blaming the Congress for the controversies that hit its Government in the past.

Whatever the past record of Congress governments in the State, one cannot now say for sure that Naveen Patnaik Government is having a smooth sailing.

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