New Delhi: After receiving the Outlook India Speakout best administrator award in New Delhi, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik dedicated it to the 4.5 crore people of Odisha.
“I would like to dedicate the award to the 4.5 crore people of my State. Odisha was importing rice when I became the Chief Minister in 2000. Today, we are the 3rd largest contributors to the public distribution system in the country,” said Patnaik after receiving the award from former President of India Pranab Mukherjee at a special function.
“In the last 10 years, Odisha has doubled farmers’ income and lifted 8 million people above the poverty line. As far as women empowerment and socio economic development is concerned, we have now 5 million SHG groups under the Mission Shakti initiative of the government. As far as reduction in infant mortality is concerned, Odisha is well above the national average and 50,000 lives are being saved every year,” the CM said.
“In the year 1999, super cyclone had ravaged Odisha and 30,000 people had lost their lives. Through our disaster management initiatives in the last four years, no human lives were lost in cyclone Phailin. We have always endeavoured to make more efforts to make our state No-1 in the country,” Naveen added.
An online survey conducted by the Outlook India magazine placed Naveen along with five other chief ministers Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Manik Sarka`r (Tripura) and Siddaramaiah (Karnataka) in the nominations for the coveted award. But Naveen Patnaik left behind all others in the race to be selected the best administrator.