The sub-panel of the amenities committee today decided to increase the monthly salary and other allowances of MLAs from Rs 58,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
While chief minister’s salary has been hiked to Rs 98,000, deputy chief minister and speaker will now earn Rs 97,500 monthly as compared to Rs 58,500 earlier. The hike will also see salaries of ministers, leader of opposition and government chief whip increase from Rs 58,000 to Rs 97,000.
Similarly, ministers of state and deputy speaker will now get a salary of Rs 95,000 monthly, while deputy ministers will get Rs 93,000 against a previous salary of Rs 56,000.
A breakdown of the total salary shows, that car allowance for all has been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 17,000 while sumptuary allowance has been hiked from Rs 24,000 to Rs 40,000.
The State government had revised the emoluments last time in 2009.
Earlier in the day several MLAs from both ruling and Opposition parties met chief minister Naveen Patnaik and urged him to approve the salary hike demands while further asking him to increase funds under MLA Local Area Development (LAD) fund to a minimum of Rs 3 crore from Rs 1 crore.
Legislators have been demanding for fatter pay packets for quite some time now and the issue had heated up the Budget session of the Assembly back in April.
Here is a quick look at the Ministers inducted today into the Naveen Patnaik cabinet in 2017.
BJD Mahanga MLA Pratap Jena: Pratap Jena took oath as cabinet minister in Naveen Patnaik cabinet in 2017 today. Was elected as MLA for first time from Kishannagar in 2000 and from Mahanaga in subsequent elections. Pratap Jena had held the portfolio of School and Mass Education Minister from 2009 to 2014.
Jayadev MLA Sashi Bhusan Behera (Cabinet Minister): Two time MLA from Balipatna (2009) and Jaydev (2014) Assembly Constituency. Known for his organisational skills, Sashi Bhusan Behera has also worked as vice-president in the party.
Puri MLA Maheswar Mohanty (Cabinet Minister) : 5 time MLA since 1995 from Puri. Was speaker of Odisha Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2008. Also worked as Panchayatiraj minister, Culture and Tourism and Law Minister in Naveen Patnaik government.
Bhandaripokhari MLA Prafula Samal (Cabinet Minister): A veteran politician,Prafulla Samal was elected MLA from Bhadrak for three terms and won from Bhandaripokhari constituency twice. Held important portfolios of Panchayatiraj, Culture and Tourism and Labour department as Minister.
Digapahandi MLA Surya Narayan Patro (Cabinet Minister) : A seasoned politician Surya Narayan Patro has been an MLA since 1990. Has discharged duties as Minister of IT, Forest and Environment, Energy, Revenue and Tourism departments in past.
MLA and former speaker Niranjan Pujari (Cabinet Minister) : 4 time MLA from Binika and Sonepur from 2000, Pujari had held the post of speaker of Odisha Legislative Assembly and was Minister of Industries, Excise, Food and Consumer Welfare
Anant Das (Minister of State): Elected as MLA thrice from Bhograi from 2000 and also was member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly’s PAC and house committee.
Chandra Sarathi Behera (Minister of State): Elected as MLA from Salepur constituency from 2009 to 2014 and from Cuttack Sadar in 2014. Chandra Sarathi Behera has been given minister rank for the first time in Naveen Patnaik ministry.
Sushant Singh (Minister of State): Two time MLA from Bhatli constituency in 2009 and 2014.
Nrusingha Sahu: 4 time MLA from Pallahada and Parjang constituencies.
It is said that BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik has effected the biggest ever Cabinet rejig that Odisha witnessed in his 17-year rule in a bid to stimulate governance and strengthen party base at grassroots level. Or is it the saffron threat?
Here are some of the issues which could have been the reasons behind the reshuffle.
Debi Prasad Mishra
Considered as the Narasinghpur strongman, Mishra had occupied important portfolios at different times for the last 13 years in the government. However, the party had witnessed poor performance in the recently concluded panchayat elections in his constituency. This reason might have prompted the CM to oust him from the Cabinet.
Puspendra Singhdeo & Sudam Marandi
The same reason of bad performance in rural polls is also stated to have cost both the leaders dear. The regional party had performed dismally in Singhdeo's constituency-Kalahandi and Marandi’s Mayurbhanj.
Sanjay Dasburma
The young face of the party, Dasburma was embroiled in chit fund scam which had tarnished the party image to certain extent. After resignation, he has been given the responsibility of BJD's youth wing.
Arun Sahoo
He had been in the headlines during different times over various controversial matters like Brahma Parivartan fiasco and fake Gazette notification. Besides, the Nayagarh legislator had also failed to meet party expectations in the panchayat elections in his area. Now, he has been entrusted with the task of strengthening BJD’s students' wing and party observer for Mayurbhanj district.
Pradeep Panigrahi & Pranab Prakash Das
Although, both the young ministers had maintained a clean image, they had to quit the ministerial berth as they have been asked to look into the coordination part in the party.
Jogendra Behera & Lal Bihari Himirika
Besides, party's dismal show in their respective constituencies in panchayat elections, both the veterans were in a row over their departmental performance.
Pradeep Amat
One of the oldest faces, Amat had been given the additional portfolio of Health along with Finance after Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak quit as Health minister few months ago. It is learnt that he could replace Niranjan Pujari as Speaker of Odisha Assembly.
The properties of the IT company attached by the ED include a residential building, two residential apartments, one residential plot in Bengaluru and more than eight acres of arable land on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Apart from this, ED has also attached the plots of Ignis Technology which were allotted by the Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha (IDCO) in Odisha.
ED in the meanwhile has registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Nihar Samantara, one of the directors of the company.
It may be mentioned that following allegations of financial fraud to the tune of Rs 30 crore against the company by the UBI, the CBI had probed into the case.
Talking to OTV, Samantara said the company was running on partnership in which he is one of the directors. “But this partner went abroad without my knowledge after withdrawing Rs 30 crore from UBI by producing fake and forged documents. He took away the entire money with him without investing a single pie in the company. Since that partner is untraceable, the ED has registered a case against me as I am one of the directors and had remained as a personal guarantor,” he added.
Well-known among the non-resident Odias in Bengaluru, Samantara was very close to Union ministers as well as some ministers and MPs of Odisha as he used to invite them as guests to a number of programmes organised by his company. Not only the political leaders, he was used to invite well-known Ollywood actors and some influential personalities of Odisha to the programmes.
As part of the process, the meetings of the BJD organisational districts began at the residence of the party supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik at Naveen Niwas here today.
On the first day of the meeting, Patnaik had a discussion with the ministers, MPs, MLAs, observers and senior party leaders of Ganjam district.
The meeting discussed about the strategies to wrest all seats in the district. The chief minister asked the party leaders to work in coordination with all party workers.
"Taking note of the discontentment in the party over selection of candidates in the district, Patnaik asked senior party leaders to prepare a list of candidates having clean image and no dispute. Besides, he also asked the district poll observers and each MLA to propose the name of three candidates each for the Zilla Parishad and the list to him through the poll observer," former minister and senior BJD spokesperson Surya Narayan Patro told media persons after the meeting.
Former minister and poll observer of Ganjam district, Maheswar Mohanty, who was present at the meeting, said the chief minister asked the district party leaders to amicably sort out the disputes relating to selection of candidates for Zilla Parishad election. Besides, he also asked them so submit a list of candidates having no disputes over their selection.
He, however, said there is specific time limit for submission of the candidates’ list since the last date for filing nominations is on January 17.
One Ure Madi of Koimetla village in the district also filed a complaint against the Health Minister, the Women and Child Development Minister, the ST & SC Development Minister and the Rural Development Department and the RWSS secretary.
Holding all of them responsible for the rise in JE death toll, Madi went to the police station accompanied by Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Prasad Harichandan and former Nabarangpur MP Pradeep Majhi and lodged the FIR.
Earlier in the day, the PCC chief visited the affected areas in the district to take stock of the situation. He also held discussions with district Collector K Sudarshan Chakravarthy in this regard.
While the chief minister will attend the I-day celebration in Bhubaneswar, the following is the list of ministers who would unfurl the Tri-colour in 18 district headquarters.
Sambalpur-Pradip Amat, Balasore-Damodar Rout, Puri-Debi Prasad Mishra, Dhenkanal-Pradip Maharathy, Cuttack-Bikram Keshari Arukh, Keonjhar-Jogendra Behera, Kendrapara-Usha Devi, Malkangiri- Lal Bihari Himirika, Jajpur-Badri Narayan Patra, Mayurbhanj-Pushpendra Singhdeo, Kalahandi- Prafulla Mallick, Kandhamal-Ramesh Majhi, Bhadrak-Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Angul-Arun Sahu, Nabarangpur-Sanjay Das Burma, Sundargarh-Sudam Marandi, Jagatsinghpur-Ashok Panda and Koraput-Pranab Prakash Das.
The respective collectors will unfurl the national flag in the remaining 12 districts.
Hundreds of Students Congress activists took out a bike rally from Congress Bhawan demanding the arrest of these two ministers.
While on the way to the official residence of Sahu, they were blocked by the police near AG Square. Soon, a scuffle ensued between them and the police. The activists burnt the effigies of the two ministers.
Police later detained some Students Congress activists and their president Itish Pradhan.
“We demand immediate arrest of these two ministers and BJD MLA Byomokesh Ray who have received huge amount from Motilal Gouda. We will not allow Arun Sahu to enter into the State Assembly premises. It is the commitment and assurance of the Students Congress”, Pradhan told media persons.
“Two years ago, we had taken a historic decision by approving the manifesto of the party which contained our pre-poll promises made to the people of Odisha for adoption as the priority agenda of governance. Though I am happy to share that we have been able to effectively address some of the key assurances made to our people, there is still scope for improvement in technology, which has not been leveraged enough to redress peoples’ grievances,” Patnaik said while addressing the Council of Ministers to mark the completion of two years of the fourth term of the BJD government in the state.
Talking about governance, the chief minister said though the state government had managed to replace 80 percent of paper files with digital files, efforts must be made to make it hundred percent in the next three months.
“As regards transparency in governance, there is still scope for system improvement and I am sure you will take this aspect of governance very seriously. There are many good practices happening in the country and abroad. You should be open to such initiatives and take steps to implement them in our state,” he told the ministers.
Stating that his government is decisively moving towards the fulfillment of the promises made to the people, Patnak said the government has been focusing to address the basic needs of the farmers, women, youth and the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of the society.
He complimented the ministers for the performance of their respective departments for successful organization of Nabakalebara, conversion of 10 lakh kutcha houses into pucca houses creating a benchmark at the national level for other states to follow, record food grain production of 120 lakh tonne leading to the Krishi Karman Award for the fourth time, establishment of 100 Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas on the pattern of Kendriya Vidyalayas, implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to provide food security to 79.59 lakh families of the state, introduction of Aahar in more than 100 locations in the state providing food security for the needy people in urban areas, holistic health care coverage with the provision of free medicines under the Niramaya scheme and establishment of 6 new government medical colleges in the state, launching of ANWESHA to provide quality education to SC/ST students, opening of three new government universities, starting construction of the 650 km Biju Expressway at a cost of Rs 3600 crore to provide state of art connectivity in Western Odisha and commissioning of mega Lift Irrigation projects in the drought prone KBK areas to revolutionize agriculture in the traditionally drought prone areas.
“Apart from this, Odisha leads the country in the settlement of land under the Forest Rights Act to ensure the rights of livelihood for the tribals and forest dwellers”, he said, adding that the Mamata scheme implemented by the state government has benefited almost 20 lakh women.
Talking about the industry sector, the chief minister said setting up of the petrochemical complex in Paradip and commissioning of the Kalinga Nagar project are the major achievement of the state government.
Informing that Odisha has been ranked very high by independent agencies in “Ease of Doing Business”, he said the Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR) 2015 will usher in industrial growth in the state despite global slowdown.
“Our focus is value addition, skill development and job creation leading to growth with equity. We have also set up the Odisha Skill Development Authority to provide global standards in skill development and job creation,” Patnaik added.
Odisha CM Naveen recently directed all his ministers to submit monthly status report on the implementation of manifesto promises every month. It is considered as an important step towards better governance & also a challenge for ministers who face tough tasks. Especially for Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera, Ashok Chandra Panda (Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disability), Sports and Youth Services Minister Tusharkanti Behera, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari and Health Minister Naba Das, there are challenges galore.
Padmanabha Behera, who has already planned his task for the first month said, “On a priority basis, we will make a list of things to be done as per the election manifesto.”
The coming months will be crucial for Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari as he will be presenting a full-fledged budget.
Minister of Sports and Youth Services, Tusharkanti Behera, said that there will be no pressure on him and he will work for the people.
“I am a workaholic person and there is no boundary for me when it comes to work. I will ensure that work is done as promised by the party in the manifesto,” said Behera.
Amidst challenges like of lack of funds for Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana and shortage of doctors in hospitals, Health Minister Naba Das has to finalise the proposed convergence of the State scheme with Centre's Ayushman Bharat.
Similarly at the Centre, PM Modi has set a deadline of 100 days for his 58 ministers to prepare a roadmap. Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar are the ones who have their work cut out.
“We will ensure that public welfare work is done properly. This government is not about announcements, but about walking the talk,” said Pratap Sarangi, who was inducted as Minister of State for MSME in PM Modi's Council of Ministers.
In a letter, Naik has requested the CM to make a proper audit of the ornaments of Lord Jagannath citing high possibility of stealing of jewelleries and precious ornaments. “I request you to conduct an audit immediately and reassure that our Lord’s wealth is safe. The Ratna Bhandar should be opened immediately and the list of jewelleries should be matched with the inventory prepared in 1978,” said Naik in the letter.
Naik has mentioned that the Ratna Bhandar had more than 120 kg of gold and 221 kg silver 40 years back when the last inventory of the valuables within the storehouse was made. He also said that appointment of the judicial commission was worthless as nothing significant happened even after submission of the final report.
In response, State Law Minister Pratap Jena said, "We haven't received any letter from the LoP yet. Odisha government has already formed a probe commission to investigate Ratna Bhandar key fiasco. The Government is not leaving any stone unturned when it comes to ensuring the security of Puri Srimandir."
On the other hand, Congress MLA Suresh Routray said that Srimandir's Ratna Bhandar shouldn't be opened for audit as officials will loot all the ornaments in the treasure trove.
Srimandir's Ratna Bhandar shouldn't be opened for audit as officials will loot all the ornaments in the treasure trove, alleges Congress MLA Suresh Routray #Odisha pic.twitter.com/duQTwqqgxE
— OTV (@otvnews) October 29, 2019
Notably, Odisha government had ordered for a judicial probe on June 7, 2018 following massive public outcry over the disappearance of the Ratna Bhandar key. The State Government had appointed Justice Raghubir Das, retired judge of Orissa High Court as the chairman of the ‘Commission of Inquiry.’
However, the entire issue again snowballed into a controversy after the then Puri Collector Aravind Agarwal, on June 13, claimed that a ‘duplicate key’ of the Ratna Bhandar was recovered from Puri district record room.
The CM’s appeal comes days after the Odisha bureaucrats adopted as many as 30 government schools under the new programme.
The CM wrote to all including Odisha Ministers requesting them to adopt their alma mater or any government school of their choice under programme.
A person can adopt a maximum of three schools under the initiative.
The Chief Minister said that the programme has brought them an opportunity to do something for their dearest school.
"You all have established yourselves in society by your own ability and talent. The school in which you had studied has a significant contribution to that. Contribution of school is immense, it has shaped us. It has provided us with the ability to create a unique identity for ourselves," he added.
Earlier, 16 top bureaucrats of the State have come forward and adopted government schools under the programme.
Among the adopting officers, 13 are from the Chief Minister’s Office and 17 from different government departments and district administrations, School and Mass Education Department sources said.
As many as 30 schools have been adopted by different officers.
The state government had launched the 'Mo School Abhiyan' on Children's Day in 2017 to create a platform for people to connect, collaborate and contribute to revamping the government and government-aided schools in Odisha.