Nabakalebar fiasco: Naveen rushed four of his ministrers to the battle ground

June 24, 2015 utkalreporter Odisha, Photo Gallery 0

Utkal Reporter Bureau
Bhubaneswar|22 june 2015

Odisha chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik on Monday pushed four of his ministers to the ground to make the grand event of Nabakalebara on July 18 hassle free. The Chief Minister woke up to action as his government is receiving bombardments of charges from all directions in the wake of the ongoing Nabakaleabra disturbances, the June 16 Brahma Parivartan botch up in particular.

Housing and urban Minister Puspendra Singdeo, Health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Law Minister Arun Sahoo and Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das have been directed to camp in Puri to personally oversee the execution of infrastructural work of their respective concern.

On the occasion of cart festival of the Nabakalebar Puri is expected to host some 2.5 million devotees from all across the world thus calling for a massive infrastructural base to stand the event. Rs 2200 crore of public money has been in stake for the project that the government took up as early as in 2010 to complete by 2014 cart festival. The timeline was revised to May 2015 and it got further extension till 20 June 2015 only to mark repeated failures.

Government entrusted Maheswar Mohanty, the local legislator to see the project as the chief of the Nabakalebara Committee in the rank of a cabinet minister. But the ultimate result just before three weeks of the function is disappointing. The drainage and sewerage system stand well behind their completion, a lot of area is still left to be done in the sector of drinking water and lightening. Road connectivity to the city is struggling to catch up with time.

The challenges ahead are huge for the ministers while public faith to see the works completed before the day is fast giving way to the clouds of doubt .State Congress is looking to the up for providential intervention to come to let the function go. “Lord Jagannath will have to take his function to success.” Said PCC head Prasad Harichandan.

Senior BJP leader said,”We have raised the point earlier, we are repeating it. The state government is not in a position to ensure a smooth going of the Nabakalebara function.”