'Mo Sarkar and 5T Initiative' draw people closer to Naveen

Bhubaneswar, Mar 23: During the last one year, 117 government officials have been punished on charges of dereliction of duty and corruption, including four on Monday. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Naveen Patnaik won 112 seats out of 147 Assembly seats in the state in 2019 Assembly election. The people’s support was his greatest strength and realising this, Naveen initiated steps in his fifth term to come closer to the people by launching ‘Mo Sarkar’ on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti (October 2) in 2019. On July 8 in 2020 Naveen enunciated a dynamic model of governance. He added two more T ( time and transformation) to his earlier 3-T mantra (teamwork, transparency and technology). Meanwhile, he entrusted the responsibility of supervising implementation of 5-T mantra (teamwork, transparency, technology, time and transformation) to his trusted aide VK Pandian. The Chief Minister called people and collected feedback from them over phone about the functioning of police station and hospital and the public service delivery at the grass root level. Naveen said  on October 14, 2019 ”I myself have in the meanwhile made 120 phone calls and the peoples’ feedback was encouraging”. Later, he included several public services under the Mo Sarkar and 5T Initiative. Meanwhile, Naveen’s Secretary VK Pandian and other senior officials have been visiting various interior districts of the state regularly to bring transparency in governance under the Mo Sarkar and 5T Initiative. In the process, Naveen's stringent action against corrupt government officials and employees has compounded public confidence on him. "Corruption is the main obstacle on the way towards development. Through the Mo Sarkar and 5T Initiative the state government has been able to curb corruption and at the same time expedite development process," said General Secretary of Bhubaneswar Confederation of Citizens' Associations Subhransu Rath. In order to raise sense of answerability of the government servants, Naveen has put weightage to performance under Mo Sarkar' during their annual performance appraisal. Several senior and powerful officials have been given compulsory retirement based on public feedback and corruption charges leveled against them. Scores have also been placed under suspension in the last two years, said a retired bureaucrat who was associated with the appraisal process of government employees. It also helped in containing the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in the state as Naveen implemented 5T framework in Odisha's fight against the deadly virus that affected public life and economy drastically. A team of senior trusted bureaucrats fanned across the state to monitor the Covid-19 management system and expedited  setting up healthcare facilities on war foot basis earning heaps of praise from various national and international institutions.