DISSOLVE THE ASSEMBLY IF YOU LOVE DEMOCRACY

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Guillotine is a parliamentary practice. But a government escaping accountability in financial matters entirely by the means of guillotine itself is indicative of deficiency in management of democracy. It is a matter of shame that the Orissa government under Naveen Patnaik has failed to overcome its deficiency and has failed to respect the democratic emphasis on discussion than guillotine.

From commencement till date the Orissa Legislative Assembly has not been able to transact any tangible business as the government side has kept pressed a Motion on use of Hirakud water against a Motion proposed on the same subject ahead of the treasury benches and Speaker Maheswar Mohanty elected from the treasury benches to the coveted post has not acted upon the Motion proposed by the Opposition even though this precedes the official proposal.

It is clear and unambiguous that the treasury benches have been strangulating the Assembly and they perhaps do not want the House to proceed so that they can escape accountability. Now with the guillotine they have succeeded.

Success of the treasury benches in escaping accountability can have no other meaning than defeat of democracy.

An Assembly that has been hijacked as such by the government of the State to a stage where accountability cannot be clamped on it, has no meaning in living any more. It is a seer loss of time and money of the State.

So the Governor should appreciate that the current Assembly is incorrigible and hence, he should intervene in order to set it right. He should not remain a mute witness to strangulation of the Assembly by a government that he heads statutorily. He should summon the Chief minister forthwith and ask him to withdraw the official Motion nailed on the House subsequent to the Motion of the Opposition and to appropriately discuss the Motion first notified in order to develop a democratic consensus on the same and thereby to help the House proceed with normal business.

If the Chief Minister fails to comply with his advice, he should act under Article 174 (2) (b) of the Constitution to dissolve the ailing Assembly so that a healthier one may take birth.

ORISSA ASSEMBLY HAS COLLAPSED; LET IT BE DISSOLVED

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Ever since commencement, the current session of Orissa legislative Assembly has not transacted any tangible business. Both the sides have made it collapse.

Demanding a motion adopted on votes by the Assembly, prohibiting supply of water from Hirakud Reservoir to industries as that adversely affects irrigation, the Opposition is not allowing transaction of any other business of the House; whereas the government side has placed a parallel Motion on the same issue to pledge the Hirakud water to irrigation, while desiring the motion to develop a consensus on the issue sans voting.

Both the sides are legally right in coining their respective motions and are also right in sticking to them.

But are they doing anything other than shedding meretricious tears for the farmers?

It is congress that has a Prime Minister in Dr. Man Mohan Singh who is the father of an era of importance given to industry over agriculture. Have the Congress legislators of Orissa ever questioned that anti-farmer design of their national leadership? Can they ever?

Similarly, Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is conspicuous by his eagerness to serve the non-Oriya industrialist to the detriment of Oriya marginal farmers. He is so obstinately anti-people that he never visited the victims of Kalinga Nagar massacre perpetrated by the state police to serve the purpose of private industrialists. His followers are so docile that he was never challenged for this nefarious design against the children of Oriya soil and so motivated in favor of private industry that instead of standing with Oriya farmers they are busy in dividing the farmers� community into rival groups so that private industries including foreign industries like POSCO find free ways to exploit Orissa. Against this backdrop, can the legislators who pride in being followers of the BJD autocrat be ever taken as sincere in their approach to the turmoil over Hirakud water?

To me both the sides are making a farce of the demands of our farmers and in competition to continue the farce, they have made the Assembly collapse.

I have earlier discussed how failure of the Speaker to work as per The Rules has helped continuance of the impasse. Had the Speaker dared to rise over party politics and acted impartially as thr Rules dictate, the impasse could have been removed.

I have been reporting Assembly for so many decades. Never such a bad shape had the Assembly acquired.

It is high time to admit that the Assembly has collapsed. Taking into account the volume of its legislative time lost in filibustering, it would not be anti-democracy to say that the present Assembly should be dissolved to give the people of Orissa a new chance to elect a new Assembly, which, hopefully, may be a better one.

The Governor, upon whom the Constitution under Article 174(2)(b) has bestowed the responsibility of dissolving the Assembly, should rise to the occasion and dissolve it so that future members would be more conscious of the importance of legislative time.

ANARCHY IN ASSEMBLY: THE SPEAKER SHOULD RISE ABOVE PARTY LINE

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Speaker Maheswar Mohanty has declared that he will not claim his participation allowances for the days of this session when the Assembly remains so stonewalled that no tangible business is transacted. But, it is he to whom annalists may hold responsible for the continuing impasse that has kept the House stonewalled for the last five days ever since its current session commenced.

Since commencement of the current session, Orissa Legislative Assembly has failed to proceed with normal business, as the Speaker is not disposing off a Notice from the Opposition on a Motion it wants the Assembly to adopt.

The farming community has raised vociferous protests against supply of water to industries from the Hirakud Dam Reservoir (hereafter called the Reservoir) and has heightened its demand for ban on any diversion of water from power generation and irrigation to industrial use.

In fact, the Hirakud Dam was created for this specific purpose of power generation and irrigation only and the people of the area have tolerated the turmoil of displacement only for this purpose.

Diversion of water to industry has made a farce of peoples� sacrifice and our people are no more willing to tolerate this onslaught. The recent mass agitation has made it clear that unless the government amends itself, the situation will no doubt go beyond controls.

The Opposition has taken a timely and appropriate step to stop precipitations. It has preferred a Motion that wants the Assembly to bind the government through a unanimous decision to reserve the Reservoir for only power generation and irrigation. Therefore it has given the notice under Rule 113-B of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Orissa Legislative Assembly, herein after called The Rules, which stipulates at Cl.(3),

�The Speaker shall, at the appointed hour on the allotted days or on the last of the allotted day, as the case may be, forthwith put every question necessary to determine the decision of the House on the original question�.

Section 113-A of The Rules has two parts. In Part (1) it has spelt out the conditions of admissibility of motion. These conditions are:

(i) it shall raise substantially one definite issue;
(ii) it shall not contain arguments, inference, ironical expressions, imputations or defamatory statement;
(iii) it shall not refer to the conduct or character of persons except in their public capacity;
(iv) it shall be restricted to a matter of recent occurrence;
(v) it shall not raise a question of privilege;
(vi) it shall not revive discussion of a matter which has been discussed in the same session;
(vii) it shall not anticipate discussion of a matter which is likely to be discussed in the same session; and
(vii) it shall not relate to any matter which is under adjudication by a Court of law having jurisdiction in any part of India.

The Opposition Motion does not violate of any of these conditions. Hence its notice is doubtlessly admissible.

If there is any defect in the motion, the Speaker is empowered to disallow admission thereof in whole or in part under the 2nd part of this Rule which says,

�The Speaker shall decide whether a motion or part thereof is or is not admissible under these Rules and may disallow any motion or a part thereof when in his opinion it is an abuse of the right of moving a motion or is calculated to obstruct or prejudicially affect the procedure of the Assembly or is in contravention of these Rules�.

But the Speaker is failing. He is neither admitting the Opposition Motion nor is he disallowing it. He is the person to decide, but he is not taking any decision. Therefore, the Assembly has remained stonewalled.

Seemingly he is in a predicament.

He is put to this predicament by the Treasury Benches on whose choice he is in the chair and whereto he shall go if under any circumstances he relinquishes. This predicament is caused by another Motion noticed apparently in retaliation to the one from the Opposition. This parallel Motion from the government side wants its disposal under Section 113-C of The Rules, where the matter, if taken in to consideration �shall not be put to the vote of the House�. Unless it is voted, it is not binding. Crux of the issue lies here

The Chief minister has declared through television interviews repeatedly that there shall be no supply of water to industry from the Reservoir; but Minister Raghunath Mohanty has told the Press that supply of water to industry from the Reservoir shall not affect irrigation.

Mohanty�s statement has helped people know the hidden agenda of the government behind the formulation of its parallel Motion. It makes it clear that water supply to industries from the Hirakud shall continue notwithstanding in what term the House discusses the official Motion.

It is a known fact that Navin babu�s loyalty to industry has put the people of Orissa in pernicious jeopardy. He or his government can go to any extent to hoodwink the innocent people and therefore, the Opposition says, binding the government with a voted Motion to preserve the water of the Reservoir for only power generation and irrigation is the bare minimum necessity of the moment.

If Navin is not trying to hoodwink the farmers why he is afraid of the Motion preferred by the Opposition? It is really intriguing; specifically as the government claims that the Motion it prefers is also on the same issue with the same intension.

In fact, if the government does not want to reject the demands for use of the reservoir water only for power generation and irrigation, then it has no reason to oppose the Opposition Motion. It has no reason to be afraid of voting; because being in majority, the government side can make the Motion voted and then the credit shall certainly go to the Treasury Benches for making it binding.

The government can also reject the Opposition Motion by majority vote as being in the Treasury Benches, it has majority members in the House. So why it is reluctant to take a specific step?

Who, then, is responsible for the impasse in the Assembly? The Government or te Opposition?

On the other hand, why the Speaker is reluctant to pass a ruling in order to end the impasse?

He has two Motions on his table. Difference in language notwithstanding, both of the Motions is equal in intent. So the Speaker should pick up one and reject the other.

In this regards, he has two options to exercise. One, he should admit the notice that is received earlier than the other.

As the Opposition notice is received earlier, he should admit this and reject the official one.

The second option available to him is exercise of his wisdom in favor of result-oriented discussion.

A Motion sans voting cannot be result-oriented. If the debates on a Motion do not arrive at a determination, it would go barren and shall have no end-result. And there is no gain in engaging the House in a debate that would go barren in a very sensitive instance that craves for a binding direction from the Assembly.

In case, the Speaker ignores the Opposition Motion noticed earlier and admits the Official Resolution noticed later, as the guardian of the Rampart of Democracy, he is expected to declare as to what in his view is the majority opinion of the House so that water supply from the Reservoir would be guided accordingly.

This would tantamount to a decision of the House without voting with lot of openings for future litigations.

This would not be conducive to what in a democracy people normally expect. Therefore, it is best to avoid declaring a decision without a voting.

The issue is really serious. The Speaker ought to pay his serious attention to this. By declaring not to claim allowances till the impasse is over he is not helping democracy. He is to act. And, act very soon. The Rules have given him the required authority to allow or disallow placing of a Motion for consideration of the House. And The Rules have clearly categorized the conditions on which a Motion can be allowed or disallowed by the Speaker.

But to act according to The Rules, he is perhaps required to rise above party lines.

SAHITYA AKADEMI HOLDS JUBILEE DIST. MEET AT PHULBANI

The Kandhamal District administration and literary organizations of the district collaborated in celebrating the golden jubilee of Orissa sahitya Akademi on 18 November 2007.

Inaugurated by the District Collector Bhabagrahi Mohapatra, the event commenced with a stress on recognition of Kui as a language in order to help the Kandh tribes entering into the mainstream of society. District Board Chairperson Smt. Kuntala Mallik was the Chief Guest.

Chairing the event, Akademi VP, H.R.Gandhi dwelt on how Oriya literature is dovetailed with folklores and folk stories prevalent in tribal belt of Orissa including Kandhamal.

Dr. Premananda Mohapatra�s keynote address projecting contemporary Oriya literature provided the base for Jubilee discussion wherein Dr. nalini Kumar Panigrahi and Adityeswar Mishra participated.

The Jubilee poet meet was presided over by Dr. Purna Chandra Mohanty, Principal of Phulbani Women�s College. Smt. Pranati Tripathy and Sri Kishore Chandra Mishra were the coordinators.

The evening was dedicated to applied culture with active participation by the local Dance Academy, Nataraj Kala Mandir and Koel Kala Samsad. Project Director of Rural Development P.K.Rath joined as Chief guest. Sri Banamali Panigrahi and Dr. Madhusudan Mohapatra were the guests of honor.

SRI JAYA DEV HAD NEVER AUTHORED GITA-GOVINDA, Says Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Eminent journalist and socio-cultural analyst of Orissa Sri Subhas Chandra Pattanayak has shown in his book Sri Jaya Devanka Baisi Pahacha that the finest bard of love had never authored Gita-Govinda.

According to Sri Pattanayak, Sri Jaya Dev of the 12th Century Orissa, erroneously depicted as Sri Jayadev or Jayadeva, was not a Baishnav as he is being projected; he was a social revolutionary and proponent of Sahajayana sect of Buddhism. He had authored his love lyrics to provide a supportive literature to this cult, which was essential in his time to check spread of Brahminic apartheid in his motherland, Orissa.

The lyrics having immense Sahajia impact and being matchlessly popular, agents of Brahminism, in course of time, had tried to transform them into Brahminic literature through interpolations and by editing them in a style conducive to their own cult and by captioning the interpolated compilation as Gita-Govinda when, in fact, the poet was so much against the cult of Govinda that he had never used that name even for once in his lyrics, Pattanayak maintains.

His lyrics supporting female factor in consonance with Sahajayana were so much threatening to patriarchal political system that they were banned from the temple of Lord Jagannath by the great patron of Brahminism in Orissa, Emporer Purushottam Dev. The Emperor had replaced the lyrics of Jaya Dev with a book captioned as Abhinav Gita-Govinda of which he had claimed to be the author; but which was allegedly authored by a Brahmin namely Dibakara Mishra wherein attempts were tactfully made to transform Sri Jagannath from Buddha of Orissa to Krishna of Dwaraka in order to terminate the Buddhist flow of philosophy till then active in his abode, Sri Mandira.

People of Orissa had revolted against this conspiracy and had compelled the said Emperor to withdraw his own order and work and to restore recital of the lyrics of Sri Jaya Dev before the Lord as before.

Purusottam Dev withdrew his work but the selected Brahminic interpolations continued in the guise of orders he had allegedly received from the Lord in dreams.

Agitation of the public could somehow be managed with his son and successor Emperor Prataprudra Dev promulgating an ordinance to the effect that no other song than that of Sri Jaya Dev can ever be recited in the temple.

Unable to write off the Buddhist impacts of this revolutionary poet, Brahminism in Orissa had played a trick. It had interpolated 72 verses on his original works and given it a misleading title called Gita-Govinda, editing the same in a style to usurp him for Brahminic Vaishnavism. The Bengalis, without knowing the truth on Sri Jaya Dev, have joined the bandwagon of claiming him for Vaishnavism as well as for their homeland. In the process, the immortal love lyricist has been buried under baseless legends.

Sri Pattanayak has shown how both these segments, the chauvinist section of the Bengalis and the agents of Brahminism are wrong in their claim over Sri Jaya Dev.

The book is unique. It has completely dismantled the fort of Bengali claims over Sri Jaya Dev. It has, for the first time, exposed how the Central Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi has been misused in the matter of Sri Jaya Dev. It has, for the first time, freed Sri Jaya Dev from legends on the basis of historic perspectives. It has brought to records all the relevant but missing episodes of Orissan history for the first time through interpretative research. It has shown how Radha, now a Hindu Vaishnav deity, was created by Sri Jaya Dev as Nayika of Buddhist Sahajayan. It has shown how Orissa is the place where Buddha was born. It has shown how Buddha became Sri Jagannatha. It has shown how Sri Jagannatha is in reality the female factor. It has opened up new avenues for research on the now extinct Mahodadhi Civilisation of Orissa. It has opened up new vistas into research on extinction of Buddhism in the soil of its origin, Orissa, vis-a-vis the role of Asoka.

Over and above the most perspicacious discussion on Sri Jaya Dev and his times, Sri Pattanayak�s book contains the Oriya translation of his lyrics in poetic form with the most measured meticulousness typical of the acclaimed wordsmith.
Smt. Sabitarani Kanungo,
Former Professor in Sanskrit and President,
State Selection Board, Govt. of Orissa.
Editor�s Note:

A more analytical book than this in the subject so far is not available.
Published originally by reputed publishers Bharata Bharati, Gajapati Nagar, Sutahat, Cuttack-753001 in 2005, it is going to be available shortly in the net.

T-shirts on the Demand With Funny Quotations

By Kautuk Mitra

Gone are the days when people used to wear formal dress. Fashion change in every alternative day. During this year Dasahara and Dewali the funny quotation T-Shirts are in demands. The present generation which is known as the �Generation-Next� or �Gen-X� is more interested in these quotations T-shirts. The generations of yester years see such type of quotations on the T-shirts, somewhat different and unthinkable as they could not read the quotations with ease. They even don’t dare to because of that awkward feeling while reading such type of quotations. Humorous quotations which are being observed now days are not only humorous but also to certain extent unthinkable and vulgar meaning.

The quotation reads like this, �This Year I am Joining MBA- Master of Bad Activities class in your city.� or on the front side of one of the T-shirts, the quotation reads like this “99 percent of girls of the world are beautiful. Please look back side- to know about the remaining one percent”. And at the back side of the T-shirt, it reads like this “remaining one percent is my neighborhood girls. These T- shirts not only carry these types of message but also with mischievous pictures imprinted in the T-shirts have been seen. One such was bearing the line ‘mission impossible’ with a picture imprinted in it showing a man and women with big size bellies, facing each other or �OSAMA HIDES HERE�.�With arrow mark to your lower body part. Now can anyone tell me how does you explain this to your younger sister or brother about where is the place this T-Shirts shows?

And some quotations which are not understood exactly and what kind of message leave the quotation like this one that reads for example ,� For Computer Engineers Insert The Hardware Into Software”. Can any one tell me what type of message this boy want to say by wearing these T- Shirts and what is the actual meaning writing on his chest. Another T-shirt that has been written with the quotation �My Father is an ATM�

According to Ranjeeta Swain, a P.G. Student says, �Funny T-Shirts always make you unique but all these quotation it should be written in a good way. After the demand from the market some of the manufacture company started printing vulgar or nude photographs in the T-shirts. Just like any printed materials these T-shirts also get approve by any Government department. Yesterday when I went to temple with my father, one girl also wearing such types T-shirts with a quotation �Press ��. To Enjoy� I also complain to police man who is on duty, but he is also helpless because there is no laws against this activates. She adds with an annoyance in her face.

According to Ranapratap Bose, who is a model by professionals says, �Now it is demand of the society. We must follow the modern fashion trends. In the current society if you not changes with the society you are backwards and no one like to be the backward.

�We don�t know who start these trends. Truly speaking this all team are demand of these seasons. Every one wants to look different & unique from others and by wearing these T-Shirts you can easily get notices.� Shakti Ranjan who is MBA student says with a smile on his face.

What ever the reason may be Though these type of T-shirts imprinted with such kind of quotations are found somewhat awkward by the older generation, the new generation guys find it so easy and enjoying the attention of others.

A CONFUSED GOVT. CARTS ORISSA TO SATHYA SAI

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

It is profusely reported in print media that a pack of Orissa Ministers have received gifts from Sathya Sai baba at his headquarters at Puttaparthi while canvassing the charmer for establishing a hospital on behalf of his organization at Bhubaneswar.

The pack comprising 9 ministers of Navin Patnaik�s cabinet was membered also by their wives and children as well as selected MPs and MLAs with their respective spouses.

As they claim, they were deputed by the Chief Minister with a written request for establishment of the Hospital.

Sai reportedly has not opened his lips in the matter and dispurshed them with gifts of gold rings.

If anything, this is a baffling scenario. It indicates to what extent the government of Orissa is confused.

A Chief Minister, if his ministers are telling the truth, allowed himself to be a party to propaganda of a person who personifies religious revivalism when the Constitution of India entails upon administrative authorities to discourage steps in this regards. If he has deliberately done this then it is an offense against the Constitution and if he has not done it deliberately then it is clear that he is functioning under dictates of others sans application of his mind.

If the CM, howsoever misconceivedly, preferred to seek from Sathya Sai funds for a Hospital, he could have sent a single minister or a single officer with the letter for the purpose. Instead of that how such a huge group of Ministers accompanied by their respective families could be deputed?

Now as the matter has been exposed, it is possible that the concerned ministers shall not claim TA and DA for the outside of State tour. On watching their treasury bills it may be ascertained. But how can it be explained that for around a week, several departments including Finance of the State administration were rendered rudderless due to their absence when their presence was essential for preparation of the supplementary Budget as well as preparation of government version for the arriving session of the Assembly?

On the other hand what these fellows did at Puttaparthy? They prostrated before Sathya Sai. He may be a Bhagawan to any number of poliical animals getting their salutations. But, these fellows from Orissa, as long as they are Ministers, are not mere political animals. They are authorities of Orissa under the Constitution. Sathya Sai is not a superior authority under our Constitution. So, by prostrating before Sathya Sai, these Ministers have made our Constitutional Authorities prostrate before an extra-constitutional entity.

What more sacrilegious treat our Constitution could have received from a government?

Chief Minister Navin Patnaik and all the fellow of the Cabinet who have committed this sacrilege owe an explanation to our country.

As far as the Hospital is concerned, I am given to understand that Sai organization wants not to be left behind in land grabbing. Ravi Shankars et al having grabbed land, why should Satya Sai be left behind? In the guise of Hospital, they need 1000 Acres of land in a patch. And, they have organized for this purpose the drama of Chief Minister sending the Ministers� team with the so-called request.

So in the issue of Sathya Sai Hospital, needle of suspicion points to the otherside of land grabbing.

The developments should be watched dispassionately.

BERHAMPUR HOSTS SAHITYA AKADEMI GOLDEN JUBILEE

Laxman Nayak Community Hall at Berhampur hosted the district celebration of the golden jubilee of Orissa Sahitya Akademi on 11 November 2007, which was inaugurated by Prof. Sudarshan Acharya, recipient of Atibadi Jagannath Das award, Orissa�s highest honor for excellent contribution to literature.

Vice-President of the Akademi H.R.Gandhi in chair, the event was welcomed by Dr. Shantanu Kumar Rath, Ass. Director of All India Radio. Akademi secretary Dr. Parichha Pattanaik putting forth the agenda, made a remembrance of Kavi Samrat Upendra Bhanja and the era of poetic classicism he had fathered.

Prof. Acharya echoing on the Kavi Samrat focused on how the district of Ganjam has enriched Oriya literature for the last two thousand years.

Secretary General of Utkal sammilani, Basant Kumar Panigrahi, novelist Yasodhara Satapathy as well as Vice-chancellor of Berhampur University Prof. Bijay Kumar Sahu addressed the event as guests of honor.

The Golden Jubilee symposium was captioned as �Upendra Bhanja, Kavi Surya and Gopal krushna vis-�-vis Oriya Literature�. Dr. Prahallad Panda and Dr. Bidhuprabha Rath discussed on the keynote address delivered by Dr. Bauribandhu Kar.

The Golden Jubilee poet meet was held under chairmanship of poet Bipin Nayak. Smt. Amiyabala Pattanayak, Smt. Binodini Gantayat, Dr. Nikhilananda Panigrahi, Mohapatra Bhaskara Gantayat, Dillip Das, Pradip Rath, Biswanath mallik, Dr. Suryanarayan Das, Smt. Pramila Mahalla, Susanta Das, Smt. Anjali das, Shyamababu Dora, Udayanath samantray and Gopal Shatapathy were amongst the poets who participated.

FELONY UNVEILED; BUT THE R.C.S. IS RELUCTANT TO TAKE ACTION!

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

When chronic loss kills a cooperative commercial concern, the reason behind it must be subterfuge and corruption.

Yes, this is the reason of the present precariousness of The Utkal Rastrabhasha Prachar Co-operative Press & Publishing Society Ltd, Cuttack, which was once the most prestigious and fruitful organization in print and publication sector in Orissa.

The Society had three successful units: Press Unit, Publication Unit and Handmade Paper Unit. All of them were running in profit. But, such sort of people grabbed it that it is now bankrupt and the auditors have remarked that the �trade profit earned by the society during previous years have not been sufficient to shoulder its establishment expenditures�. The deterioration started with the aggressively avaricious contractor turned politician Basant Kumar Biswal ( no more alive) becoming President of the Society on 16.2.1990.

Biswal had a close associate in Bhagavat Prasad Mohanty, also like him a minister in Congress cabinet, who was eventually elected Vice-President of this society. Both together, like in Orissa�s power politics, displayed such manipulability that the profit fetching organization stared showing continuous loss.

Though Mohanty got formally elected as Vice-President on 12.8.1993, ever since Biswal had taken over as President, he was regarded as the shadow boss. Both of them were planning to set an empire in the fourth estate. The daily Samaya of Biswal with Mohanty in the Board of Directors, is credited with ushering in an era of colored printing of newspapers in Orissa. But initially Biswal had thought of entering into the fourth estate by using the Rastrabhasa Press. Mohanty was known to be Biswal�s think tank. A plan was cooked up to appoint one of Biswal�s factotums as Secretary-cum-Chief Executive of the Society and through him to enroll new members to form a majority in the General Body to facilitate transformation of the Press and its centrally located vast area and buildings for the newspaper venture of Biswal and Mohanty. Accordingly a man called Balabhadra Prasad Acharya was appointed as Secretary by Biswal on 24.7.1991.Even as he had started enrolling new members to proceed with the hidden agenda, senior and legitimate members could smell a rat and Biswal tried to save his skin by pretending as if he had no plan to grab the press and its land for his media project.

But, this did not deter Acharya looting the society. Special audit conducted for the period from 1990 to 2006 has found that huge misappropriation has reduced the society to such a state that meeting establishment charges has become impossible. When in all the units of the society there were misappropriations, the amount involved was much smaller. But the amount of misappropriation Acharya has been found to have committed is in terms of lakhs. He was appointed on a paltry sum of salary at Rupees one thousand only. But he is found to have misappropriated Rs. 15,91,199.00 during his tenure as Secretary of the ailing society by tampering with the paper stock. It seems, with his joining as Secretary, the era of mega misappropriation had commenced in the Rastrabhasa Press as his two successors, Kshitish Chandra Samantray and Sanjay Kumar Malla are also found to have misappropriated Rs.6,22,520.00 and Rs.4,63,419.00 respectively through the same method of tampering with paper stock.

Acharya has not halted at the level of Secretary of the ailing society. He has entered into government service in the rank of Inspector of Co-operative Societies by exploiting his unholy links with Biswal and Mohanty when both of them were ministers under J.B.Pattnaik in 1997. He was not qualifying for entry into government service. But under pressure from Biswal, the then Assistant Registrar as well as the Deputy Registrar of Co-op. Societies had helped him manufacture false documents to bag the post.

On a thorough investigation into the illegality of his entry into government service and analyzing how the records he had produced to establish his eligibility to government job were false and fabricated, the official auditor has expressed shock over how responsible officers like the ARCS and DRCS had approved them through verification. To quote him, �The certificate furnished by the Secretary (The Utkal Rastrabhasha Prachar Co-operative Press & Publishing Society Ltd) was not correct. The verification certificate furnished by ARCS, City Circle was also false. It was also carelessly countersigned by the then DRCS, Cuttack Division on dt.06.10.97 without ascertaining the correctness of the certificate�.

Recommending recovery of the huge money misappropriated by Acharya without loss of time, the special audit officer has clearly notified the authorities that �The Special Audit is of the opinion that Sri Acharya has entered into Government Service as Inspector of C.S. by furnishing a false certificate that he was serving as secretary since 05.05.87, whereas he served as secretary from 24.07.91�.

He has made this fabrication of certificate in order only to grab the permanent government post under executive quota of 80% as per Orissa Sub-ordinate Co-operative Service Recruitment Rules, 1992. Seeing how higher officers of the co-operative department like the ARCS and DRCS have given false verification certificates in his favour in order to help him get the job is seeing a classic instance of corruption that has engulfed the co-operation department.

The Special Audit Officer has noted, �The Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Orissa, Bhubaneswar may kindly investigate, if Sri Acharya has been selected basing on such a fabricated and non-verified certificate and take appropriate action as he deems fit�.

But the Registrar is unable to explain as to why he is unable to initiate any action so far against this dubious recruitment and against the unveiled misappropriation.

DR. ASOKA MISRA: THE UNACKNOWLEDGED FATHER OF THE ERA OF CONTROLLED APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Sciencedom is agog with arrival of a new era. This is the era of controlled application of electricity. But that an Orissa-born scientist, Dr. Asoka Misra is the father of this era is yet to be acknowledged.

“Low-intensity electric fields can disrupt the division of cancer cells and slow the growth of brain tumors, suggest laboratory experiments and a small human trial, raising hopes that electric fields will become a new weapon for stalling the progression of cancer”, reports the August 2007 issue of Physics Today, the flagship magazine of the American Institute of Physics, highlighting a research, performed by an international team led by Yoram Palti of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

Deep Brain Stimulation, that facilitates resurrection of vegetative patients, reported in Nature, and conveyed by The Telegrapgh, 13 August, 2007, is claimed to be a “technique that uses the minutest quantities of electric current supplied through electrodes drilled deep inside the brain with millimeter accuracy”.

Biomolecular recognition in DNA with better resolution is claimed to be possible through a technique called electro deposition technique that pivots on use of Cadmium Selenium (CdSe) which is a semi-conductor, as shown online 16 Jan.2007 under the caption �Biomolecular Recognition in DNA tagged CdSe nanowires, Sarangi et.al.

International industrial giant Philips has claimed to have invented “fluidfocus lenses”, the technique of which is counter-claimed by a France firm Varioptics. But the method common to both is controlled application of electricity.

“A current of two-thousandth of an ampere of electricity applied for 20 minutes is enough to produce a significant improvement” in enhancing verbal skills, reports Nature News online quoting a study by Meenakshi Iyer of National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland. (The Telegraph, 1 Nov.2004)

Many more utilities with promises to usher in hitherto unknown advantages for human society like Sperm Filter to fight infertility (The Reuters, 5 Jan.2005), Deep-brain-Stimulation to allow the surgeon to “neuro-navigate” through the brain to the nearest millimeter for tackling Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s syndromes, Flexy-gadgets as conceived by researchers at Sony Tokyo Lab to Flexi-display in ads to Electric specs with adjustable focus (Science News, 2006), are a few of what are in store.

Controlled application of electricity is the life spring of all these techno-achievements

If all these achievements, present and future, metamorphose into a new era of technology, Dr. Asoka Misra, a scientist born in Dhenkanal of Orissa, should be aptly acknowledged as the father of this era.

He is the first scientist to have invented the method of controlled application of electricity to interfere into the structure of a matter in order to manipulate its character into a desired state, which was first published in the referral journal of United States of America, ‘The Metallurgical Transactions A’ in 1985 proceeding eventually into publication of his conclusive determination in the February 1986 issue of the same journal under the caption, “Misra Technique”. His invention has been patented vide US Patent No.5,253,696 dated 19th October, 1993. And, in patenting the method of controlled application of electricity, expressed in the patent as “method for controlling solidification of metals and other materials”, Dr. Misra is the first in the world. His method has been referred to and relied upon in registration of later patents in USA.

It is marked that after publication of “Misra Technique” in 1985-86 and specifically after his technique was available for public perusal consequent upon registration of his patent in 1993, controlled application of electricity has become a sure process in shaping of various innovations that has given birth to a new era in the Sciencedom.

Honesty prevailing, Dr. Mishra deserves to be acknowledged as the father of the era of controlled application of electricity in scientific innovations as these are post-patency his method.

[Dr. Asoka Misra, did his M.S. in Metallurgical Engineering in 1972 as well as Ph.D. in Physical Metallurgy in 1975 at Polytechnic University of New York, USA and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, from 1977 to 78. During his Doctoral but prior to Post-Doctoral period he also worked as Quality Control Engineer, Clinton Engines Corp, Iowa, USA from 1975 to 1977. After Rutgers, he joined IIT, Kharagpur as Assistant Professor in Metallurgical Engineering in 1979 where from he proceeded in 1991 to New York for two years in a scientific quest. In intervening period of 1986-87, he worked as Visiting Fellow at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

However, on leaving USA in 1993, he thought of helping Orissa grow in Technical education and joined O.E.C. as Principal in 1993. Since then he has steered several Engineering Colleges of Orissa as Principal including BIET, Bhadrak / ITER, Bhubaneswar / GHITM, Puri / SSECT, Balasore / KIST, Jatni / NMIET, Bhubaneswar before accepting the present assignment at KEC, Bhubaneswar.

He has four inventions to his credit out of which, two inventions are named after him and known as (1) Misra Technique and (2) Misra Random Rotation Technique. Misra Technique that forms the crux of this report has been patented in USA in 1993.]