In a first, Naveen Patnaik seeks report from his MPs on performance in Parliament & constituencies

BHUBANESWAR: BJD president and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday asked his party MPs to apprise him on issues raised by them in Parliament and steps taken to resolve the issues in their constituencies once in two months.
The BJD MPs have been asked to submit the report by 10th of the month starting August, which is first of its kind advisory by the party president in BJD’s history.
“I will review those reports regularly and give you crucial suggestions on various issues. I will suggest the way you should work wholeheartedly for development of our state and welfare of its people,” Naveen noted in a letter to the MPs, a copy of which is with TOI.
Earlier, the chief minister had asked the first-time BJD MLAs to be polite and remain connect to the ground while in a recent meeting with his minister colleagues, Naveen had asked the ministers to go on extensive tours to grassroots to take direct feedback from people about pace of implementation of government schemes and developmental programmes.
Naveen, in his letter, also hailed the women BJD members in the Lok Sabha saying he was touched the way the women MPs raised various issues on state’s interest in their maiden speech recently. In the recent Lok Sabha election, BJD had reserved 33 per cent seats (seven of total 21) for women. Five of the seven women candidates won from their seats.
On his party’s resounding victory in the assembly elections and winning highest numbers of seat in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJD president said the mandate shows that they have highest accountability before the people both in the state and at the Centre.
Naveen also exuded confidence that the new team of MPs that has both new and experience leaders will work in the parliament for betterment of the interests of the state.