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Bhubaneswar: In his inaugural address at the beginning of the Odisha Assembly’s budget session on Thursday, Governor Ganeshi Lal patted the State Government for its ‘pro-active management’ of COVID-19 but the word ‘Covid Warriors’ finds a solitary mention in the long 1-hour speech.
“The State has done extremely well in every parameter of Covid management and has been praised by national and international organisations for its foresight and effective situation management without any hassle to the public,” said Guv Lal.
He also said, “My Government ensured free quality treatment for the citizens from the testing stage to critical treatment and until discharge. This is one of the main reasons for the low mortality in the State compared to national and international mortality rates.”
ON COVID WARRIORS: “To motivate and honour the Covid Warriors and to unite the society to fight against the pandemic situation, my Government had organised the “Bande Utkala Janani” event and brought together the Odias across the World.”
GUV’S FOCAL POINT
While the prime focus of the Guv’s speech was on Covid-19, State’s Health sector, Drinking water, Sanitation, farmers and their issues stood relegated to the end of the address this time, even as it harped big on “transparent, efficient, accountable & robust paddy procurement system” in the State.
Moreover, when the address by Governor painted a rosy picture of Odisha, the glaring omission with regard to the total employment provided or created in the State during last year portrays a contrasting tale.
The contrasting tale is the year 2020 had been marred by the pandemic and job losses had been rampant in the State.
Above all, the major change witnessed in Governor’s speech on Thursday and that of the last year is 5T and Mo Sarkar found a mention towards the end of his address this time.
In contrast, last year’s Guv Speech was brimming with the halo of 5T and Mo Sarkar that was evidenced by the mention of ‘5T’ nearly 7 times and ‘Mo Sarkar’ around 8 times in last year’s address.
Significantly, the sixth session of the 16th State Assembly today witnesses an unprecedented security blanket around the roads that lead to the Sachivalya Marg.
The police had virtually formed a no-entry zone at all the vintage points that lead to the Odisha Assembly as a preventive strategy to stop the new trend of ‘self-immolation’ bids by people protesting the inaction/complicity of state administration in redressing their grievances.
THE VOCABULARY TEST
♣The address this time found no mention of the word ‘Aspiration’ as against once in last address.
♣ Health care mentioned for nearly four times. The speech stated, “Mission of my Government is “Sustha Odisha, Sukhi Odisha”.
♣Food security has been referred to thrice.
♣Piped water supply referred to for 5-times in the speech.
♣Migrant workers found mention for 3-times.
♣Skill development referred to twice.
♣Hockey mentioned twice.
♣Farmers’ development referred twice in the speech.
♣Private Investment mentioned for once.
♣Start-up mentioned twice.
♣MSME development found only a solitary mention.
♣Disaster preparedness found a mention thrice.
♣No mention of NMA heritage bye-laws or Shree Jagannath Heritage Corridor (SJHC) and Ekamra Khestra Development Project; whereas last year, the Guv speech had stated “My Government has taken a historic step to transform the infra facilities around Shree Mandir at Puri and Shree Lingaraj Temple at Bhubaneswar.”
MENTION OF HERITAGE: The speech stated “In the second meeting of the Heritage Cabinet, seven proposals have been approved for promotion of Odia culture which includes conferring classical status to Odissi music, separate Directorates for Odisha State Archaeology and Odisha State Museum, digitisation of Odisha State Museum and Ananda Bhavan Museum which memorialises Biju Patnaik enabling virtual tour and holistic development of Suando, the birthplace of Pandit Gopabandhu Das. My Government has also launched a new programme ‘Dikhyant’ for reviving the age-old teacher-disciple tradition and revival of dying Art in the State.”
MISSING CHILDREN AND ‘PARI’ IMPACT?
*My Government has now expanded the scope of Biju Sishu SurakshyaYojana-2020 to include children without both or single biological parents, and all other categories of children in need of care and protection, with an annual family income of below Rs 48,000 and children affected by AIDS.
*My Government has rolled out ‘ADVIKA-every girl is unique', an adolescent life skill education programme to engage with adolescent girls on various health and nutrition issues.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPEECH
BALARAM and KALIA: The speech referred to the new scheme “BALARAM (Bhoomihina Agriculturist Loan And Resources Augmentation Model)” for the financing of Joint Liability Groups/ Sharecroppers. AND
Under the KALIA scheme, interest on crop loans up to Rs 50,000 has been reduced to 0 per cent making available interest-free crop loans from the year 2019-20.
TRANSPORT SECTOR: Road: Government has provided bus services in 257 routes by utilizing 441 buses out of which 46 routes are inter-state ones.
* Rail: Govt is contributing around 25 per cent of the construction cost as well as a land free of cost for rail projects being executed in the State. The land will be provided free of cost for the connectivity from the Rail Head of Narla Station up to the proposed location of the Electric Locomotive POH Workshop in Kalahandi District.
*Aviation: Government has decided to establish an Aviation training centre at Birasal Airstrip, construct a new airstrip at Malkangiri, upgrade Jeypore Airstrip in Koraput district, Rourkela Airstrip in Sundargarh District, and Utkela Airstrip in Kalahandi district into full-fledged airports under RCS-UDAN Scheme.
IRRIGATION: *My Government is emphasizing water conservation and improvement of water use efficiency with an investment plan for Rs 11,700 crore over the next 4-5 years for large scale conservation of surface water inside streams and rivers.
*Further, groundwater recharge work through 10 thousand Minor Irrigation and irrigation tanks covering 15 districts amounting to Rs 1,098 crore have been taken up in association with Green Climate Fund.
*Nearly 16 thousand Check Dams have been constructed under Mukhya Mantri Adi-Bandha Tiari Yojana (MATY) for the conservation of water.
*Deep Bore Well Scheme and Parvati Giri Mega-lift Irrigation programme have brought a major transformation in irrigation scenario in the State. So far my Government has handed over about 79 thousand bore wells to farmers and commissioned 109 Mega Lift Project.
NUTRITION: My Government has sanctioned 1,567 new AWCs in the nutritionally challenged blocks covered under the “SOPAN: A Strategy for Odisha’s Pathway to Accelerated Nutrition” in tribal-dominated areas.
DRINKING WATER: My Government has adopted a 360-degree approach to water quality management to ensure that the supplied water meets the necessary quality standards. For this, we have built 78 state of the art NABL accredited water testing laboratories across the State.
* SUJAL-Drink from Tap Mission to provide 24x7 drinkable quality water directly from Taphas already been taken up on a pilot basis in 12 zones in Bhubaneswar and Puri, benefitting 1.8 lakh people. The mission will be extended to cover other cities in phases.
