Thousands of party workers and leaders from across the State gathered outside the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) to congratulate the CM. After arriving, he was felicitated by the crowd. Also, he paid floral tributes to the statue of Biju Patnaik at the BPIA before leaving for Naveen Nivas.
The BJD had made elaborate arrangements to welcome Patnaik. Hoardings and banners had been put up at various places in between the airport and Naveen Nivas.
However, due to the Utkal Express train accident in Muzaffarnagar on Saturday, the BJD has decided to celebrate it in a low key manner.
After reaching at his residence, Patnaik addressed media persons saying, “I would like to thank all the people who had come in such large number to the airport to greet me. I would like to express my deep gratitude again to Outlook for having awarded me the Best Administrator in the country award.”
The CM dedicated the award to the people of Odisha adding, “ We shall continue to strife to make Odisha the number one State in the country.”
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BJD chief whip Amar Sathpathy said, “Other than the party, various sections of people of Odisha felicitated the Chief Minister. He has brought a dignity for the State and the CM has also mentioned that he will work to make the State number one in the country.”
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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.
“The 71-year-old Naveen Patnaik has been a Chief Minister for more than 17 years in Odisha, a feat accomplished by only a few leaders, such as Jyoti Basu , elsewhere in the country. Many attribute the success of the Biju Janata Dal president, son of former chief minister Biju Pattnaik, to his good work as an administrator. His handling of the situation arising out of the various cyclones is considered to be a copybook lesson in disaster management”, stated the online magazine.
BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy, has also been nominated as one of the best Parliamentarians by the magazine.
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In the 17 years of governance, Naveen is known to be making efforts to transform Odisha into a developing state. His clean and credible image have made him one of the most popular politicians in the country.
The BJD, upbeat about the feat achieved by the CM, has been making arrangements for celebrations both in New Delhi and party office in Bhubaneswar. The award ceremony is scheduled to be held tonight in New Delhi.
“Naveen Patnaik has the charisma as he has converted our disadvantages into advantages. The recognition will certain help us to work for the development of Odisha,”said BJD vice-president, Debi Prasad Mishra.
However, opposition parities including BJP and Congress have questioned the 'parameters' on the basis of which Naveen Patnaik was rated as the top administrator among several other chief ministers in the country.
“It is totally a sponsored thing as there has been no development in state, On what parameters Outlook rated Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as Best Administration needs to be analysed,” BJP general secretary, Prithviraj Harichandan.
This year the theme of the Outlook SpeakOut Awards was ‘Women’s Vision 2020’.
The Outlook Group has instituted the ‘SpeakOut 2019 Awards’ to honour upright individuals who showed personal courage, integrity and enthusiasm, men, women or children who stood up for what they believed was just, despite all the odds.
Sharing her happiness, Panda said, "I would like to take this opportunity to thank my team. I was very fortunate to have a team that believes in my dream that we would build a company, a professional media organisation in the state of Odisha which did not have an agenda. We will only report and hence we have a tagline called ‘We report, you decide and we truly live up to that.”
“It was a wonderful journey and all the challenges that I faced in past 22 years feel like milestones,” she added.
Speaking at the award ceremony Panda said, "I am delighted to receive the award. I would like to thank Outlook India for honouring me with the award. I also like to congratulate 10 women achievers in the field of sports, cinema and other fields who received the award," she said.
Panda also spoke highly about BARC India’s data insights to monitor content performance. “In a highly dynamic television sector, the Data and Insights generated by BARC India have helped us to monitor our content performance week on week.”
Recipient of #OutlookSpeakOut Award 2019 as one of the the Top Women Achievers in India, @JagiPanda, MD, Odisha Television Ltd, speaks about how @BARCIndia's data insights helps them to monitor content performance week on week.#IndustrySpeaks #4YearsStrong pic.twitter.com/3dmTfdWAM4
— BARCIndia (@BARCIndia) October 21, 2019
“With the exponential growth in digital media, we are now waiting for BARC India's EKAM, the digital viewership measurement service. We are confident that BARC India will continue to maintain its high level of professionalism & transparency in this field also,” she added.
It was a wonderful journey and all the challenges that I faced in past 22 years feel like milestones: Co-Founder & MD of Odisha Television Limited, Jagi Mangat Panda after receiving Outlook SpeakOut Award-2019 from Union Minister Smriti Irani in New Delhi #OutlookSpeakOut2019 pic.twitter.com/aCRmFWOZ8q
— OTV (@otvnews) October 19, 2019