Odisha Govt said that Rohit Pujari was dropped because of the poor performance of his department. (News18)
BJD said that Chief Minister Patnaik has always given importance to good governance and the minister’s removal is a clear message of Patnaik’s intolerance towards poor performance
In a major cabinet reshuffle, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday dropped higher education minister Rohit Pujari from the council of ministers due to the poor performance of the Higher Education Department.
Apart from that, the chief minister also shifted department secretary Bishnupada Sethi to an inconsequential post.
While on one hand, BJD and its supporters claim that the Odisha government under Patnaik has no room for poor performance, the move is also being seen as an outcome of Pujari’s controversial remark on politicians aged 60 or above in addition to alleged corruption charges against his department.
It is also being reported that there were murmurs about a conflict between the minister and secretary and that the latter was taking the decision against the Directorate of Higher Education’s orders.
According to a political expert, Patnaik has acted against many ministers on the charges of corruption and controversy.
“It may not be right. Despite the poor performance, there are some ministers still intact. So it may not be the only reason behind Pujari being dropped from the cabinet. There may be other reasons like corruption and irregularities etc,” said political expert K Ravi.
Meanwhile, state politics heat up soon after Patnaik decides to drop Pujari with the opposition targeting the Odisha government for corruption and irregularities in the system.
“The reason to drop Rohit Pujari from the ministry has yet not been disclosed. It is being said that Rohit was removed due to his poor performance. We don’t know true this is. The chief minister should order a vigilance probe into the scam in the higher education department,” said BJP Spokesperson Manoj Mohapatra.
Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluza also accused the BJP government of hiding the true reason behind Pujari’s removal from the cabinet.
In response, BJD said that Chief Minister Patnaik has always given importance to good governance and the minister’s removal is a clear message of Patnaik’s intolerance towards poor performance.
BJD MLA Amar Satpathy said that the departmental performance was reviewed during the Chief Minister’s meeting and the minister was dropped after his department’s performance has shown poor results.
