Odisha CM asks officers, ministers to treat his 'family of 4.5 crore people' with dignity

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday asked all senior bureaucrats and ministers in the state to serve his "family of 4.5 crore people" diligently and treat them with respect and dignity.

Patnaik, while addressing a senior officers' conference, asserted that "every institution in a democracy should work for the welfare of its people", an official statement here said. "Family is very important to all of us. We want our children to study well. We want our brothers and sisters to get the best of jobs. We want our parents to have good healthcare facilities," Patnaik stated.

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Describing the senior officers as "drivers of change", the chief minister said he was confident that the conference would go a long way in motivating them to perform better. "I have a family of four-and-half crore people. I have been serving them for the last twenty years. The spirit of my governance is reflected in the preamble of 'Mo Sarkar' (my government)," he said.

The state government had launched the 'Mo Sarkar' initiative on October 2, 2019 as part of its efforts to provide better governance. Under the initiative, the administration takes feedback and suggestions from people on the government's welfare schemes. Among others, Friday's meeting was attended by chief secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy and state ministers, including Parliamentary Affairs Minister BK Arukha and state Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari.

Patnaik, who is also the BJD chief, administered an oath to the bureaucrats and ministers, the statement of which read, "People are the soul of democracy. Every institution in a democracy is for the people... created by their money... to empower and serve them.

"Every person visiting any institution will be treated with dignity and his issues have to be treated in a professional and ethical manner. People are the masters and those who work are paid by the people." The CM asked those attending the meeting to share with him a "game-changing idea" by the end of the two-day conference, which began on Friday. 

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