Odisha is witnessing a debate nowadays on whether the ministers or officials are more powerful in the affairs of governance.

The Opposition continues to hammer the government on the issue stating that “babudom” is ruling the roost in the state and elected MLAs, even ministers have lost their significance in the present-day administration.

The Odisha Assembly on Monday witnessed a bedlam over the issue. However, Naveen asked the Opposition not to worry about the issue. “People are happy… peoples’ representatives are happy …Opposition members should not be unhappy because of political reasons,” he asserted.

The Opposition Congress and the BJP launched a blistering attack on the treasury bench for rejecting an adjournment motion on the ministers’ and officers’ status and role without citing any specific reasons. They continued to target the chief minister’s office for intervening in all the issues.

However, Naveen tried to put an end to the debate. At the House, he said: “All of you may remember that during Covid, I had sent the same team along with senior officers to monitor Covid management. When others were inside their homes, the CMO team with other senior officers risking their lives was visiting district after district getting feedback and monitoring covid situation. This helped us to make quick decisions and save precious lives in our state and also help other states. Now coming to your political criticism of this whole exercise. CM Grievance Cell is always handled by CMO and Ministers are not required to attend the same in Bhubaneswar.”

Naveen said: “Once petitions are received, they are sent to concerned departments. Where is the issue of ministers versus officers in this? Ministers have played a major role as heads of the departments in resolving the petitions. It’s teamwork at the highest level and is professionally done in a democratic set-up. The aim is to resolve people’s grievances in the best possible manner.”

Naveen also maintained that there was no misuse of choppers.

For the past few months, Opposition members have been targeting V.K. Pandian, private secretary to the chief minister, for touring the districts on the chopper. “In the last three and half years we have spent about Rs 40 crores on choppers. On average Rs 1 to 1.5 crore is spent on choppers every month. In the past six months when choppers were used intensively to reach out to the people, the average expenditure was the same around Rs 1 to 1.5 crore per month. It’s completely false.”