Fmota News

Today I completed the second week of my tour in Odisha. Tonight I will start my rural Odisha tour starting with Rourkela, then Bihabandh in Sundargarh Dist, Bargarh, Muniguda (and perhaps Malkangiri), Koraput, Paralakhenundi, Keonjhar and Santhasara and Kashipur in Dhenakanal dist.. The duration for all these will be a little over a month. Between Oct. 8 and now I have met with several NGOs, held the All Odisha NGO Congregation, and made a return trip to the IAFF Rural Agriculture Center at village Barakoli in Dhenkanal District and Urban Agriculture Center at Bhubaneswar. The NGO congregation was attended by nearly 40 people, the capacity of the meeting room and was held at the Central Science Park in Acharjya Bihar. Meetings with individual NGOs were held at IAFF office in Palas Pali near the Air port. Both the NGO congregation and meetings with individual NGOs were exciting and educational. Below I wish to elaborate my more than 2-hour meeting with Dr. Jatish Mohanty, the founder of Samrudha Odisha Party. My narrations will be general in nature without specifics because my long conversations with Dr. Mohanty is privileged  1. Before Dr. Mohanty was gracious enough to visit with me at my office the Retired Director of the Geological Survey of India had already informed me that Dr. Mohanty was a distinguished Scientiest in the field of Geology prior to starting his career as an IAS officer in the Andhra Cadre. Because Geology was one of my graduate courses in Odisha, we spent a lot of time talking about (actually he talking and I listening) the economy and administration of Odisha’s mines. It was a highly educational experience for me. 2. I expressed my gratitude to Dr. Mohanty for entrance to Odisha policitics because I firmly believe that Odisha will have a bright future when others like him, Pyari Mohapatra, and Justice R.N. Misra  enter politics. The current economic prosperity in India was possible mainly (if not only) because of Dr. Singh as PM now and Finance Minister in earlier ministry; this is despite all his political and administrative follies. I have requested Dr. Mohanty to never abandon politics irrespective of electoral outcomes.  3. I found Dr. Mohanty to be very direct, engaging, and, above all, very informed with sharp instincts and strong visions of Odisha. He presented before  me many complicated and difficult issues in simple layman’s terms. That helped me learn a few things that I had difficulty in understanding earlier. 4. He was very kind and receptive to all my recommendations and has assured me that if circumstances permit, he may implement some of them. We both agreed that new technologies in agriculture can not only be used for economic advancement of rural Odisha, but can also be used as a tool to win elections. When he saw for himself results of Soil Less Agriculture at the IAFF Urban Agriculture Center in Bhubaneswar, he paid Rs.1000 on the spot to reserve a seat in the workshop on “Economic Empowerment through Ecofarming and Controlled Environment Agriclture” I will offer in the second week of Nov. and First week of Dec. Following the training of one person he will delegate to the workshop, we will plan to set up production beds in different places in Odisha prior to the next general election show voters will get to see how at least one component of his plans to remove poverty during a five year period will be implemented regardless of whether his party wins or loses in the election. 5. The next report will be posted during or after my tour of Rural Odisha, which will begin tonight, depending on availability of e-mail facility. Subhas Mohapatra