Naveen goes for image makeover with inauguration spree

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury/Edited by Sandeep Sahu

OST Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Nov 13:

Worried about the damage caused to his government first by the Itishree murder case and then by the potato crisis, chief minister Naveen Patnaik appears to have fallen back on what he knows best: announcing sops for various segments of the population left, right and centre.

On Tuesday, the chief minister had dusted off the Biju Krushak Kalyan Yojana (BKKY), a health insurance scheme first announced on Akshaya Tritiya day this year, and launched it at a public meeting at Khamara in Angul district yesterday.

Opposition parties see the launch as a move to woo the farmers, who have been badly let down by the pro-industry and anti-agriculture policy pursued by the Naveen government, ahead of the 2014 elections.

“The government, which neglected the farm sector during the last 13 years, has now launched the health insurance scheme for farmers solely with the elections in mind and to divert the attention of people from the core issues, including violence against women,” said state BJP general secretary Suresh Pujari.

Patnaik is set to lay the foundation stones for six projects, including a 100-bed mother-child hospital at Capital Hospital, and inaugurate eight other projects in Bhubaneswar on a single day on Thursday.

The scheme for distribution of free laptops to meritorious college students, put on hold in view of the cyclone and the floods that followed it, has now been revived. The chief minister distributed laptops to students in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack on Monday under the scheme, which was hurriedly launched on August 8 to beat the model code of conduct for the first phase of urban local bodies (ULBs) elections that came into force the next day.

“As all the misdeeds of the state government, including the murder of lady teacher Itishree Pradhan in which the chief minister is involved, are being exposed, the Chief Minister is trying to hoodwink the people by announcing old schemes and laying foundation stones for different projects,” said senior Congress leader Sivananda Ray.

The launch of schemes and welfare projects was nothing but a move to garner votes in the ULB polls in western Odisha, he said.