BJD MLA SoumyaRanjan Patnaik took a dig at the Odisha government’s 5T model and ‘Mo Sarkar’ initiative during question hour session in the Assembly on Thursday.
“5T is creating discrimination in government departments. The initiative is undermining usual departmental functions and this will raise questions on the transparency and efficiency of State administration,” said Patnaik while participating in a question-answer session on river water management in the House.
“The Minister’s words like ‘jala sakhyarata, ‘nirantara jala parichalana’, ‘youth for water’ and ‘mo nadi abhijana’ are very sweet and soothing for the ears. We are learning many new things from the Minister’s answers in response to different questions. We are liberally using the word ‘Mo’ (my), but there is no definite answer regarding its effectiveness and the level of development,” said Patnaik sarcastically while expressing concerns over many rivers drying up in the State.
The senior BJD leader also raised a question mark over the water policy of the State government.
“River is our great natural resource and the State government has formulated a water policy under which priority should be given to drinking water, irrigation and then tourism purposes. But the government is keen to provide water to industries. People are not getting water from the Baitarani river any more. Then what is the meaning of this water policy?” he asked.
Responding to Patnaik’s question, Water Resource Minister Raghunandan Das said the Odisha government is taking steps in this direction.
“We have not decided on a fixed tenure and budget for the project yet. However, it will be fixed soon as per the procedure in the department and steps will be taken in this regard. The senior members’ concern about the effectiveness of 5T is not correct,” Das said apparently seeking to clarify.