Bhubaneswar: 3 years into his fifth term, Naveen's stock keeps rising

BHUBANESWAR: Come Sunday, and Naveen Patnaik will complete three years in office in his fifth consecutive term as chief minister. In office for more than 22 years, Naveen has grown from strength to strength, evident from the BJD's recent sweep in the panchayat and urban local body elections.
Having brought transformative changes to the lives of people with its cradle to grave schemes, the Naveen government, in its current term, has turned its focus on facelift of major temples, fighting corruption and transforming high schools.
Starting with an Rs 800 crore beautification project of the 12th century Jagannath Temple, the government has been working on similar facelift projects like that of the 11th century Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, Chandi Mandir in Cuttack, Samaleswari Temple in Sambalpur, Tara Tarini Temple in Ganjam and Nrusinghnath shrine in Bargarh, planning to spend more than Rs 2000 crore on their re-development. Other than religious tourism, the move is also seen as a strategy to contain the rise of BJP, known for its temple policy.
Even as temples keep the political pot churning, the BJD government's ambitious initiative to transform schools has generated a whole lot of buzz. Over 2000 government schools have been transformed with smart classrooms, libraries, laboratories, toilets, playgrounds and refurbished walls and more are in the offing.
"High schools are the cutting edge of students' life. The future of a family, society, state and country are dependent on how good their high schools are," ," Naveen's secretary (5T) V K Pandian had said earlier this month.
In a state like Odisha, where 75% of the students are dependent on government high schools, it is important that if the state has to be transformed, high school education has to be transformed. That is why the honourable CM wanted to transform all the government high schools," Naveen's secretary (5T) V K Pandian had said in a video released earlier this month.
Naveen's zero tolerance policy against corruption is well documented, and since assuming office in May 2019, his government has given forced retirements to 160 officers and employees, including an IAS officer. With more and more raids unearthing huge unaccounted assets and netting the corrupt, it has only helped Naveen's stock to soar higher.
Asima Sahu, a professor of political science at Ravenshaw University, said Naveen has managed to keep the average citizen in good humour, thereby beating anti-incumbency. "His team deserves kudos for figuring out what needs to be done to stay ahead of the competition. People feel their lives have changed for the better under Naveen," she said.