By D N Singh
Bhubaneswar, June 5 : True to his words the chief minister Naveen Patnaik has given importance to women empowerment by inducting women members in his cabinet. That too assigning them with prize portfolios those call for hard work and delivery.
That way the chief minister has reposed tremendous faith on their abilities in the days to come.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given importance to women in the Council of Ministers by inducting five women into the Ministry with a prize portfolio.
Out of the five women Ministers sworn in on Sunday, three were given cabinet rank and two Ministerof state with independent charge
There were only two women— Tukuni Sahu and Padmini Dian in the outgoing ministry.
The five women Ministers sworn in on Sunday are— Pramila Mallik, Usha Devi and Tukuni Sahu all Ministers with Cabinet rank.
The other two were Rita Sahu and Basanti Hembram who were appointed as Minister of State with Independent Charges.
While Pramila Mallik was allotted the Revenue and Disaster Management, Usha Devi was given the responsibility of the Housing and Urban Development department and Tukuni Sahu was allotted the Water Resources, Commerce and Transport department.
Rita Sahu was entrusted with the responsibility of looking after the Handlooms, Textiles & Handicrafts and Basanti Hembram was given the charge of the Women & Child Development and Mission Shakti department.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also rewarded the leaders who deserted the rival political parties and joined the BJD with plumb ministerial berths.
Former Congress Working President and Jharsuguda MLA Nabakishore Dash had resigned from the primary membership of the Congress Party and joined the BJD in January 2016.
He was given a party ticket in 2019 and was inducted into the Council of Ministers as the Health and Family Welfare Minister.
During the overhaul of the Ministry on Sunday, he was retained in the Ministry and was allotted again the Health and Family Welfare department.
Rohit Pujari, the youth wing President of the Odisha Congress quit the party after he was denied a party ticket to contest the 2009 election and joined the BJD.
He was appointed Deputy Chief Whip of BJD in 2019 and was inducted into the Council of Ministers on Sunday with the charge of the Higher Education department.
Similarly, Tusharkanti Behera, the BJP candidate for the Kakatpur Assembly seat deserted the party just before the elections and contested the Kakatpur assembly seat as BJD candidate.
Behera, who held the Ministry of Electronics & Information technology Sports and Youth Services as Minister of state with Independent charge was retained on Sunday and given the departments, he was handling earlier with the additional charge of Minister of State for Home.
While nine Ministers—Niranjan Pujari ,Prafulla Mallik, Tukuni Sahu, Naba Kishore Dash, Samir Ranjan Dash, Ranendra Pratap Swain , Ashok Chandra Panda , Jaganath Saraka and Tusharkanti Behera were retained as many as 11 Ministers were dropped.
Three of the dropped Ministers — Arun Kumar Sahu, Dibya Shankar Mishra and Pratap Jena who were allegedly involved in various controversies were removed from the Ministry keeping the 2024 election in view to present a clean image of the government before the people.
While the opposition was making a hue and cry over the alleged involvement of Sahu in the death of Pariand, Dibya Shankar Mishra in the death of school teacher Mamita Meher.
The Opposition was also repeatedly demanding action against Pratap Jena in the double murder case in Mahanga.
Patnaik has given more importance to the Western Odisha by inducting seven Ministers including two women in the new Ministry.
Political observers said the move was to counter the influence of the BJP and Congress in the region.
Recently the Congress HighCommand appointed Sarat Patnaik, from Western Odisha as the new President of the Odisha Pradesh Congress in the state. The BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections had won Sambalpur, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Bargarh and Sundargarh Lok sabha seats defeating the ruling BJD candidates.
The Seven Ministers from Western Odidha who were inducted to the cabinet on Sunday are — Niranjan Pujari (Sonepur), Tukuni Sahu (Bolangir), Nabakishore Dash (Jharsuguda), Pradip Amat (Boudh), Rajendra Dholakia (Nuapada) Rohit Pujari (Sambalpur) and Rita Sahu (Baragarh).
Two coastal Odisha districts- Jajpur and Kendrapara got prominence in the new ministry. Pramila Mallick(cabinet minister) and Pritiranjan Ghadei(Minister of state hailed from the Jajpur district. Pratap Keshari Deb and Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak from Kendrapara district were inducted as cabinet ministers.
With agency Inputs
