TOP RED REBEL CAUGHT IN SAMBALPUR

A TOP NAXALITE/MAOIST CAUGHT IN SAMBALPUR DISTRICT 6/11/2011
ORISSA NEWS : SAMBALPUR

On Saturday 5th November , police arrested a top/senior red rebel, Arta Bhoi, in a nearby village in Sambalpur District. The SP of Sambalpur Nikil Kanodia confirmed that the senior Naxalite was caught on Friday night by SOG Commandos and CRPF jawan, near Bisloi Village in jujomura police station area. Bhoi was involved in many criminal cases .

Police also got some explosives from Bhoi. The SP also uttered that Bhoi was arrested in 2005. He was bailed out in 2009 and went to his village. The police were keeping a close eye on his activities but it was found normal. Then all of a sudden some of the naxalites was cropping up in nearby Sambalpur District and according to Police it was found that Bhoi’s involvement in many of the activities was confirmed.

Due to top rebel arrest many significant information will be highlighted about the Maoist activities. The SP further added that they have got some important information from his mobile phone. They are trying to find out many persons activities whose mobile numbers are stored in Bhoi’s cell.

While interrogation Bhoi revealed that their organization wanted to extort money from a company but when they didn’t find any senior official of the company then they took to terrorize and flashed with torch to the vehicles to give a shock to the company workers.

The establishment of this Red Corridor is certainly a far cry from the origins of the movement, which sprouted from the Naxalbari area of West Bengal in 1967. Then, they were a motley crew, discordant and incoherent, susceptible to internal vendettas and feuds. With a marriage of Marxist-Leninist ideology and Maoist tactics, the movement staggered and stuttered through near annihilation to emerge as a highly dangerous force.

Some crore families live below the poverty line in India. That's just one of the shocking figures in a new report that has left the government red in the face. This comes at a time when India faces its biggest internal threat from the growing Maoist movement. And it begs the question - is the government's denial of growing impoverishment and food scarcity actually feeding the Maoist movement. This is a question mark.

SANGRAM KESARI PANDA,
CORRESPONDENT,
THROUGH
SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF, THESE DAYS, TASVER E HIND
ORISSA, SAMBALPUR.

PROUD TO SAY WE ARE ODIA

PEOPLE OF ORISSA IN A CELEBRATION MOOD 5/11/2011

People of Orissa now Odisha are elated to be known as Oriya to Odia. All are in a joyful mood. Orissa’s name was officially changed to Odisha and Oriya to Odia language then presidential approval Friday 4th November to a bill passed by Parliament and the issuance of a notification. In the first official letter on the letterhead of Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thanked President Pratibha Patil for his “historic decision”.
“I convey to you the deep gratitude of our people by the state that is now known as Odisha,” Patnaik wrote.

The secretariat of the Chief Minister, ministers and officials saw a brilliant display of fireworks. The Chief Minister declared a holiday today i.e. 5th November, Saturday. All government offices, schools and universities closed.
Sweets were distributed to those attending the celebration, organized in the short term following the instructions of Patnaik. At the beginning of a unanimous resolution was passed in the state assembly to change the name of the state of Orissa to Odisha in 2008, which received the approval of both Houses of Parliament in 2010.
Presidential assent and notification issued today.

The state was formed on linguistic basis on April 1, 1936, was known as Orissa and Oriya language was since.

Actually, in September the Lok shaba had given the concern over the two bills and were awaiting the final endorsement from the President. The Rajya Shaba in March had passed the two bills and for some technical reasons, it had been handed over to the Lok Shaba for some rectifications.

It is sorry to say that this is a political humbug to divert people’s attention. The other way, honestly the people of Odisha are suffering from corruption and rampant deforestation and Industrialization. Now, one can imagine how the people of western part of Odisha are suffocated because of rampant Industrialization and the pollution these industries make out of it. The real issue has never been highlighted. No doubt the western part is full of mineral a resource, that doesn’t mean that the government goes on deforesting the entire region and carries according to their own whims and fancy.

An ass in a lion skin doesn’t make a lion. Becoming an Odia from Oriya doesn’t change the attitude and mindset. How unfortunate the denizen of Odisha that our Hon’ble Chief Minister Mr. Naveen Pattnaik doesn’t know how to speak in Odia and still carries the British Legacy with his so called Dhoti and Kurta and speaking in tongue twisting British Accent i.e. English only? What an Irony?

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF,
THESE DAYS, TASVER E HIND,
ORISSA, SAMBALPUR

JOURNOS LACK INTELLECTUALITY

JOURNOS LACK INTELLECTUALITY 5/11/2011

Last night i.e. 4th November I witnessed a debate on CNN IBN , where Karan Tapar was anchoring. They were categorically discussing the role of media as per Justice Markandey Katju statements as a Chairman of the press council. That propelled me to write something on this issue.

I fully agree that the role of media is to show the transparent and crystal clear picture of the society rather than Lady Gaga shows , some fashion elements and Bollywood type events and Cricket , which has become the opium of the masses. These events take more spaces than the poverty, maladministration, economic crisis, corruption, bribery which have become the primary thing for the media to highlight.


I agree and disagree with some points of Justice Katju. We have to analyze it in details. The press has not taken the criticism in right spirit. Some of the editors and owners think that they are above the law and their motives should not be questioned, but the truth is press like any other organization is full of self serving and selfish people. The press has also evolved from the same society like the rest of us and they should be prepared to face scrutiny like the rest of us. There are numerous examples where the press reporters have been found to indulge in all kinds of nefarious activities. The press wants the political class to clean their house; the press should do the same. It’s about time the press had a hard look into the mirror.

Let us not confuse the issue. Markandey Katju, warned, “If media proves incorrigible, harsh measures may be required”. Such measures could include imposing heavy fines on defaulters, stopping government advertisements for them and even suspending their license.
He added that poverty and unemployment were major issues facing the country that needed to be highlighted and not the wife of some film actor getting pregnant. “But these days, it makes big news,” Justice Katju opined.


I totally disagree with the statement of Justice Katju ,” The majority, I'm sorry to say, are of a very poor intellectual level, media people, I doubt whether they have any idea of economic theory or political science, philosophy, literature, I have grave doubts whether they are well read in all this, which they should be. “
Yes, it may be possible to some extent but most of the journalists are well equipped with updates (Economics, political science, philosophy and much more) and pregnant with ideas. This is a poor and immature remark on the part of the Justice.


Was this immaturity expected of a retired Supreme Court judge? He took charge of Press Council barely a month back and he wants wide ranging powers to ‘instill fear’. Should he not focus on exercising the existing powers to regulate print media and prove himself before bargaining for additional powers?
Also is less than a month sufficient period for deciding conclusively on the ‘intellectual level’ of journalists? Even if it is, has he not alienated the journalistic community forever with this mindless indiscretion?


I agree with some opinion of Mr Katju when he says “Media divides people.” Justice Katju has noticed what we have noticed and suffering since long. We need people from other communities to raise this because the loved one's we are losing due to blasts doesn't belongs to one community. It’s a collective conspiracy by the government agencies, media, and right wing political parties. It clearly shows that the blasts were organized by the Hindu groups killing themselves and blaming largely Muslims. ATS Chief Hemant Karkare cracked this conspiracy and people know what happened to him, it is organized in such a way that the killers are from Pakistan so that no Indian be blamed on this therefore no question will raise on Indian political leaders like LK Advani, Praveen Togadia, RSS & Shivsena. There is a need to control the electronic media which is working on communal parties interest. We are protesting against the corruption in government departments but we are ignoring the corruption amongst the electronic media. We need an independent body to control them. Otherwise they will demonize anybody not only Muslims currently Muslims are target.


"Press freedom is a bulwark for the Indian people against the onslaught of people in authority, and the Guild will firmly oppose the assumption of any draconian powers by a Press Council that was created with an altogether different purpose," the Editors Guild rightly said on 1st November i.e. Tuesday.

The Editor Guild could very well have taken this an opportunity and done introspection. While it does not want external supervision, what has been its track record in enforcing self regulation? Its own Revised Code of Practice of 2007 lists 22 ‘Dos and Don’ts’ for journalists and many of them cover the same issues voiced by Katju. Unfortunately the Code does not talk of any disciplinary action for violation.

According to me, during the pre-Independence period, the media had a sense of nationalism. Leading newspapers played a vital role in educating the masses and inculcating the spirit of nationalism. But in the post-Independent era, the foremost interest of the media has been profit, since most of the leading media houses are owned by corporate houses. Freedom of expression is, no doubt, a fundamental right but we need to act when it is abused.

It’s high time that strong controls should be put in place which can stop or reduce corruption in our 4th pillar. Journalist and editors need to invest more on finding truth, focus on key issues and not on sensationalism, reduce bias in articles/stories, do fair coverage, do not push hidden agenda, present facts and not twist them, educate people of India, create awareness around social issues, innovate how you present do not copy CNN or BBC anchors, show more news, less advertisements and do not create fake or twist tweets” No Joke at all.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF,
THESE DAYS, TASVER E HIND, ORISSA, SAMBALPUR

An American judge took law in his own hand by beating his daughter mercilessly

An American judge took law in his own hand by beating his daughter mercilessly 4/11/2011

This was a violent beating and anyone who doesn't see it as such has some serious issues to explore. I would be ashamed/reluctant/ disgraced to even admit I could condone such behavior. We are a civilized society, not some barbaric people whose only outlet for conflict is violence. I would never, for one second, consider doing this to one of my dogs, much less a human being, regardless of their behavior.

A YOUNG American girl by the name of Hillary Adams has posted an online video on YouTube, which is really a shocking one, where she has been beaten by her father countless number of times with a belt. She was beaten by her father as she had downloaded some files, for which she has not paid, as reported by ndtv.com. Her father, William Adams is a Texas judge by profession.

The Police department of their hometown, Rockport has been looking into the video very seriously, as they are trying to analyze whether the video has any criminal activity in it. The Williams family seems to be in a lot of trouble, which they seem to be aware of after the video became public. There was no one at the Judge's house and even his office calls remain unanswered. But, William Adam has told Corpus Christi television station KZTV, that the video looks worse than it is. He does not believe that he has done anything wrong in it and said he was making his child disciplined, as reported by ndtv.com.

The recorded video has become an instant hit on YouTube, where it has been posted. It has received more than 950,000 clicks after it was uploaded last week. The video is said to have been captured in 2004, when Hillary Adams was just 16 years of age. Hillary had posted the video but she does not want her father to be punished for his act and she seems to be regretting about her video post now.

Hillary Adams says her parents were angry because she had downloaded pirated content online, and that she turned on the camera because she sensed something was going to happen.
William Adams, who presides over child abuse cases, is still being investigated by the state's judicial conduct commission and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which on Thursday requested that he be removed from its cases until the investigation concludes.

Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the agency, declined to elaborate on the exact nature of the investigation. But he said that in general, the agency would only investigate a case in which a suspected abuse victim has already reached adulthood if there are still children in the home who could be at risk. Adams was granted joint custody of his 10-year-old daughter in his 2007 divorce.

Adams, now 23, said she had received an outpouring of support and encouragement since posting the video last week. But her feelings were tempered by the sadness that her father lashed her 17 times with a belt after threatening to beat her "into submission”. She told the Associated Press, “I’m experiencing some regret because I just pulled the covers off my own father’s misbehavior after so many people thought he was such a good person. … But so many people are also telling me I did the right thing.”

Adams, 51. likely would have been charged with causing injury to a child or other assault-related offences for the 2004 beating of his then 16-year-old daughter but the five-year statute of limitations had expired, said Tim Jayroe, police chief in Adams's town of Rockport. "We believe that there was a criminal offence involved and that there was substantial evidence to indicate that and under normal circumstances a charge could have been made," Jayroe said.

Adams's lawyer, William Dudley, said in a written statement that Hillary Adams's explanation of her decision to share the video "have been confusing and hollow .Very few people find palatable her claim that it was to 'help' her father."

Judge William Adams says in his defense about her daughter, “She’s mad because I've ordered her to bring the car back, in a nutshell, but yeah that's me, I lost my temper," Adams told us. "Her mother was there, she wasn't hurt. It was a long time ago.. I really don't want to get into this right now because as you can see my life's been made very difficult over this child," Adams continued.

When asked if he felt he was going to face any suspension or discipline from the state over the video Adams responded, "In my mind I have not done anything wrong other than discipline my child when she was caught stealing. I did lose my temper, I've apologized. It looks worse than it is."

Corporal punishment is nothing less than child abuse. This judge needs to face the same law he delivers to others. According to clinical instructor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, Jim Hopper,”This is an act of brutal violence. To beat someone into submission is not discipline. To beat a child into submission makes it harder for that child to take in rules and the values that the parent believes they are imposing on the child.”

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA
BUREAU CHIEF,
THESE DAYS, TASVER E HIND,
ORISSA, SAMBALPUR

Orissa State women’s Commission Chief demanded arrest of college girl’s murderer and rapist

Orissa State women’s Commission Chief demanded arrest of college girl’s murderer and rapist 4/11/2011

Orissa News : - Sambalpur

An intermediate student ( 10+2) of jharsuguda , which is 50km away from sambalpur , went missing on Nov 24th after coming from college from her residence. On Monday police recovered the dead body of the girl near Ghandhi Chowk on the Jhasuguda to Brajrajnagar road. According to circumstantial evidence it is under suspection that she had been raped before being killed.

Orissa State Women Commission Chairperson Jyoti Panigrahi , while making a visit to Jharsuguda met the SP , Dayal Gangwar and the Principal of Women’s College to inspect into the matter urgently. She demanded that the rapist and murderer must be arrested to the immediate effect. “ It is an outrageous and heinous act and the criminals should not be let free. I have asked the SP to look into the details of the matter and accused must be put behind the bars as soon as possible,” She told the media persons in Jharsuguda.

She further suggested the police must take special care against eve teasing, basically near educational institutions. The murdered student had to travel 25 km everyday to reach the college because she could not avail a seat in the college hostel.

DID YOU feel ashamed? Ashamed that when you were 13 years old, a passer by grabbed and pinched you? Ashamed that men passed ‘lewd’ remarks when you walked past? Or brushed against you? Ashamed when drivers adjusted their rear view mirrors to stare at your chest? Ashamed that it happened to you because you thought you walked, talked and dressed in a manner that was wrong?

Rape, eve teasing, molestation are encountered almost every day. The mark that these everyday instances leave on our psyche is immeasurable, eventually making an individual insensitive to such incidents and devastating one’s self image. The worst of it is by the society, which ironically blames the victim, in most cases the woman. By labeling them to be indecent, provocative and having an unfavorable attitude. ‘Freedom’- the word seems neatly imprinted on the papers, where stalwarts of our society use and misuse it to portray their deceptive liberal attitude. Our law grandly states: “ IPC Section 354 - whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine or both.”

SANGRAM KESARI PANDA,
CORRESPONDENT,
( THROUGH)
SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF,
THESEDAYS, TASVER E HIND,
ORISSA, SAMBALPUR

IS THERE ANY WAY OUT TO MAKE THE POLITICIANS MORE REFINED?

IS THERE ANY WAY OUT TO MAKE POLITICIANS MORE REFINED AND RESPONSIBLE OR VICE VERSE? 3/11/2011



Personally I would like to unite of Indian Parliamentarians salaries to the average salary of a working western or European people for example a member of Parliament can earn no more than five times times the average European salary or create a system where if they can't balance the budget, their salaries are automatically lowered by a certain percentage. My other ideas include dramatically limiting earmarks and only permitting votes on tax laws with 60 days of a general election.

If only we could all be gifted with the ability to say the perfect thing, at the right time, at all events. Trying to balance the time you have to speak with the words that impart what you are trying to convey, often in an impromptu setting, is difficult.

If you see the western scenario no matter what issue or problem in Canada concerns you, making the largest corporations and banks in Canada more responsible and accountable will help win the changes and solutions you are seeking.

A total of 155,000 corporations and 40 banks that the federal government regulates are not effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, responsibly or to prevent waste.

Incredibly, the laws and enforcement of parking a car illegally are stronger than most corporate responsibility and bank accountability laws and enforcement systems in Canada, and in some cases the penalties for parking illegally are higher than for corporate executives who act dishonestly, unethically, secretively, irresponsibly or wastefully.

No federal political party has focused on Canada's corporate responsibility system in the past 140 years. Most recently, the federal Liberals had majority power from November 1993 to June 2004, and then after the June 2004 election controlled a minority of seats in Parliament, and then the federal Conservatives have controlled a minority of seats in Parliament since the January 2006 election until they won a majority in the spring 2011 election.

The federal Liberals did not do nearly enough between 1993 and 2004 to ensure that Canada's largest corporations and banks are effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively or to prevent waste, and the federal Conservatives have also not done enough since January 2006.

In fact, the federal Conservatives used the public's money through the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation to bail out Canada's big banks by buying $70 billion of home mortgages from the banks, and also used the Bank of Canada and other subsidy programs to help the banks, for a total of almost $200 billion in subsidies in 2009 -- yet they did not require anything from the banks in return.

And while the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), the Bloc Québecois Party, and the Green Party have focused more than the Liberals and Conservatives on strengthening the federal corporate responsibility and bank accountability systems, they have also not made these changes a top priority issue.


Canada's largest 1,000 corporations spend more than $25 billion annually on their lobbying and promotion efforts, including on about 10,000 full-time lobbyists across the country. In contrast, there are only about 500 full-time citizen group lobbyists, and citizen groups spend only about $50 million annually on lobbying and promotion. As a result, Canadians must all work together and push hard if there is any hope to counter the corporate lobby and win key corporate responsibility changes.

According to that country’s constitution, an incumbent President cannot run for presidency for the second time. Experts have argued that if Estrada was allowed to seek the presidency for the second time, he might have been less corrupt in his first term. It is possible to rebut their argument by citing the Indian example: the chance to run for an elected office again has not been sufficient to discipline most Indian politicians.

But in India every politician understands what is in his or her short-term interest. They know what the party leadership wants, what their campaign contributors want, and what lobbyists want. At what point does the longterm interest of the nation as a whole come into play? Who represents the interests of future generations? Today, our future is determined by cowardly politicians who can only think as far as the next election. Our economy is guided by short-sighted corporations that only care about hitting their quarterly numbers, lest their stock nosedives and they get taken over by a rival corporation.


However the no of MLAs with criminal cases have gone up from 18 percent to 20 percent and more to that. This has happened in spite of the fact that before elections, leaders of both the major national parties promising that they will not field any candidates with criminal records, again shows the need for making our parties more accountable. As we enter into a new year, getting ready for general elections to put a new government in place at center, can civil societies mount enough pressure on our establishment to make them more responsible as stated by Anil Bairwal.


Sometime I feel the government system , i mean whole government machinery is responsible for putting restriction on both Politicians and the people. They are the ones who are responsible for making sure that everyone follows the law. But under pressure from government and under pressure of corruption, they not only allow everyone to be engaged in unlawful activities but they themselves also get involved in unlawful activities. Could anyone escaped from law if these government servants would have done there job properly? Would court cases would have been pending for 15-20 years, would criminals dare to contest in elections and roaming free on road, could people dare to get illegal water connection, could some used a wall as public toilet, could someone paid some money and got illegal passport if these government servant would have done their job?


As a saying goes "Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible".It is a fact that when we start accusing or start pointing fingers for the present condition of the nation, the first community that comes into our mind, is the community of Politicians. Politicians, who were responsible to rule the nation for us, for their personal benefits, did all sort of corruptions, found holes in the law, tool wrong decision and messed up this nation.



Some people object to many ideas because there are too many irresponsible people in India especially, people who will cause trouble if the government doesn't restrain them.They say we must have big government because some people won't act decently toward others, some people won't plan for their own retirement, some people are too stupid to take care of themselves properly.

In fact, the entire effort to wed morality and politics is based on the assumption that there are immoral or irresponsible people whom the government must control.It's because politicians don't use the power and money you give them to do the things you want. They use those resources to do what they want. And all they want is more power and more power and more power.

Give people the freedom to make their own decisions, to face the consequences of their own acts, to see for themselves what their actions do to others and how others respond to them.Only free people have an incentive to be virtuous. Only people who bear the consequences of their own acts will care about those consequences and try to learn from their mistakes.A free society rewards virtue and punishes irresponsibility. Government does just the opposite subsidizing irresponsibility while taxing work and responsibility.

If other states keep taxes constant, voters may punish the incumbent by defeating him in the next election - even if the tax increase is relatively small. Elections are a weapon that voters have to discipline politicians. Sharp and effective though this weapon is, it can be used only once in a while, say once in five years.

We need to have a fast and effective judicial system to discipline corrupt and inefficient politicians, at the same time enjoying the fruits of democracy and the services of the few good politicians we have. Otherwise, the democracy remains lame duck most of the time, becomes active and effective only once in five years, or two years, to go by the frequent elections we have had in India in the past few decades.


It's often said that freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin that if you want freedom, you must first accept the responsibility that goes with it.
The truth is simpler. Freedom and responsibility aren't interconnected things. They are the same thing. Freedom is responsibility. Responsibility is experiencing the consequences of your own acts not the consequences of others acts or making others pay for what you do.

And that's what freedom is. Without government to force others to pay for your pleasures or mistakes, and without forcing you to pay for what others do, you are a free, responsible human being. We have to decide whether we want a nation of self-reliant individuals who improve their own lives by offering needed services to others or a nation in which everyone is responsible for everyone else and so the government must control every aspect of our lives. We don't need a moral revival, we don't need politicians making moral decisions for us, we don't need more controls. If we want people to act more responsibly.

There are plenty of people who won't act responsibly. There are people who have no regard for the consequences of their own acts. There are people who seem incapable of behaving wisely or nicely.

Meaningless shouting, sloganeering and protesting are futile efforts to express dissent. Today's youth is a beautiful concoction of good, creative minds with great insights. So why not choose creative means of expression as the key mantra?

Very often, the youth is misled and provided a wrong perspective. The confusion that leads them in a state of aggression must be addressed. Nobody is born corrupt, they learn it from their elders. Meaningless shouting, sloganeering and protesting is not the right way. The youth consists of good, creative people with marvelous brains, which is going to waste. The effort should be to provide them creative means of expression. One must take an individual stand and never indulge oneself into mindless protest. There are better option also.

Indians may call itself a "democracy" but it is only in name. And we are forgetting the key element to any functioning democracy, a free press that properly informs its citizenry. We have had neither for a long, long time.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF,
TASVER E HIND, THESE DAYS,
ORISSA , SAMBALPUR

ORISSA CM OFFICE DENIES RTI REPORT

ORISSA NEWS : CHIEF MINISTER OFFICE DENIES AN RTI APLICANT 3/11/2011

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s office has returned an RTI applicant empty handed who wanted to know his and his ministers’ property.

City-based lawyer Biswapriya Kanungo had submitted an application on September 17 for information relating to the property of ministers. Kanungo’s request also included putting the minister’s property list in the public domain, the list of ministers who have disclosed their property and steps initiated against the defaulters.

The lawyer said that he got an information from the parliamentary affairs department PIO, who is at present the charge of carrying the similar responsibility in the CM’s office expresses his inability to furnish the information. It is quoted in the the official letter “ The required information will be sent to you after receipt of the same from the CM’s office, with whom correspondence has been made.”

Rather Mr Naveen Pattnaik claims to focus on good and efficient governance in Orissa and with crystal clear and transparency. What an irony? This is an official release made during the day claimed the state as a leading in matter of RTI Act.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International India Thursday accused Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of protecting the corrupt and not acting against tainted officials despite a public outcry.

The statement by the group comes a day after the state government opened a dispensary in the confiscated house of a tainted former Indian Administrative Service Officer (IAS) in state capital Bhubaneswar.

Reacting to the chief minister’s statements that his government was punishing the corrupt, Biswajit Mohanty, a board member of the watchdog, said such claims were hypocritical.
“This claim is totally hypocritical since numerous scams have been bedeviling the state during his tenure of 11 years. They include multi-crore scams like pulses scam, mining scam, port scam and coal scam,” he told IANS.

Transparency International has lodged several complaints with the chief minister with specific allegations of wrongdoing, favouritism and lack of transparency in award of major contracts, but he has yet to order a single enquiry, he said.

He also accused Patnaik of not sanctioning prosecution against some senior officials despite requests by the state’s vigilance police, even though government guidelines state that such sanctions are supposed to be given within a period of two months.
“Some cases are pending for more than five years now and the accused officers continue to enjoy prized postings in critical government departments having budgets of more than Rs.2,000 crore,” he said.

I always wonder how a person holding a post of this stature can behave so arbitrarily.

But with sycophants being appointed as info-commissioners, how can one expect any law-abiding behavior. “So, need of the hour is to revamp the appointment process of info-commissioners and make it transparent and participatory.

SANGRAM KESARI PANDA
CORESSPONDENT
THROUGH
SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF. THESE DAYS, TASVER E HIND,
ORISSA, SAMBALPUR