A Year After: Odisha CM pats his own govt on back

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 21:

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today patted his government on the back expressing satisfaction over his government ‘decisively moving towards the fulfillment of his party’s promises in the poll manifesto in providing a progressive, inclusive, transparent and clean government’.

“Rarely, in the history of a political party, have the pre-poll promises made to the people been adopted as the agenda of governance……I have been reviewing the performance of each department and I am satisfied that we are decisively moving towards the fulfillment of our promises to the people of our state in providing a progressive, inclusive, transparent and clean government,” said Patnaik addressing his Council of Ministers today on his government completing one year in office in its fourth term.

Patnaik said during the past three consecutive terms, the party and the government had focused on key and basic needs of the people of the state and his government’s approach had been inclusive covering all sections of the society. He said his government has been specially attempting to address the needs of farmers, women, youth and the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of the society.

While claiming that the government has been able to address some of the key assurances made to the people in the last one year, Patnaik told his Council of Ministers: “We still have a long way to go.”

Promising to work whole-heartedly in years to come, Patnaik said, “My government does not believe in slogans, but in actual delivery.”

The Chief Minister issued a set of guidelines for his Council of Ministers to achieve fulfillment of the promises made in the party manifesto in the next four years.

“Do not always go by the feedback of the bureaucracy alone. You should have a mechanism to cross check directly from the people. I would appreciate if ministers make surprise visits and take prompt action,” Patnaik said.

Stating that grievance redressal is the cornerstone of good governance, Patnaik said each department should strengthen their grievance redressal system and be closer to the people.

“Promote innovations, out of box thinking and new ideas to redress people’s grievances,” Patnaik suggested to his ministers.