Talk only about your dept in public, Naveen warns ministers

Bhubaneswar: After several leaders of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), including ministers, made statements in the media targeting Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Sanjay Dasburma over his alleged nexus with chit fund firm Artha Tatwa embarrassing the party, an exasperated party supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday intervened in the matter and warned his ministers not to go public with comments on issues which are not relevant to their own departments.

Talking to newsmen, BJD spokesperson Sashi Bhusan Behera said, “The Chief Minister has asked his ministers to speak only on issues which are relevant to their own departments.”

“If there is a need to speak on other issues, the spokespersons of the party have been authorised to do so,” Behera added.

Notably, the mudslinging between the senior and junior leaders of the party began after CBI issued a notice to the Food minister asking him to submit details about the ownership of the two Pajero SUVs owned by him.

Excise minister Damodar Rout, Sambalpur MP Nagendra Pradhan and leader of the BJD Parliamentary Party in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab had indirectly supported the Opposition demand for the ouster of Dasburma on the issue.

Following suit, senior party leader and Dhenkanal MP Tathagat Satapathy had unleashed a veiled attack on the Bramhagriri legislator and termed the minister as a ‘rat’ in a godown.

The latest to join the bandwagon were Revenue minister Bijayshree Routray, senior leaders Surendra Nayak and Lok Sabha MP Ladukishore Swain.