Good opportunity to serve Assam: Patnaik R Dutta Choudhury GUWAHATI, Nov 22 The people of Assam and Orissa have very good relations for hundreds of years and it will be a good opportunity to serve Assam, said the Governor designate of Assam, Janaki Ballav Patnaik. Talking to The Assam Tribune over telephone from his residence in Bhubaneswar, Patnaik, who is scheduled to take over as the Governor of Assam next month, said, it is a nice feeling to be appointed the Governor of Assam, a very beautiful state. Assam and Orissa are almost one in terms of language and culture and I shall feel at home serving the State.
Patnaik said that he would finalize his priorities as the Governor of Assam after taking over charge. He said that he would have to talk with the people of Assam in detail before finalizing his priorities as the constitutional head of the State. Let me first get a first hand experience of the feelings of the people before finalizing my priorities, he said.
However, at the same time, Patnaik said that he is aware of the situation in Assam as he had visited the State on several occasions in the past. He revealed that he had good relations with noted litterateur and former All India Congress Committee President Devakanta Baruah. He disclosed that he had extensively toured Assam and other parts of North East along with Sanjoy Gandhi in 1976-77 and afterwards, he visited the State a number of times for election campaigning. That is why Assam is not a new place for me and I am aware of the ground situation of the State, he added.
Patnaik said that he would come to Assam after the first week of December but the date on which he would take over as the Governor is still not finalized. The term of the president Governor Syed Sibtey Razi will end on December 9.
A veteran politician, Patnaik served as the Chief Minister of Orissa on three occasions and he also served as a Union Minister. Born in 1927, Patnaik did his graduation with Honours in Sanskrit from Utkal University and his masters degree in Political Science from Benaras Hindu University before joining as a sub editor of English daily Eastern Times. He later went on to become the editor of the paper. He also edited Oriya monthly magazine Paurusha and was a member of the All India Newspaper Editors Conference from 1956 to 1960. He also authored a biography of Gautam Buddha.
Patnaik was associated with politics right from his student days and was the president of the state unit of the youth Congress in 1950. He was elected to the Parliament for the first time in 1971 and served first as the Deputy Minister, Defence and later as the Minister of State, Defence. He was re-elected to the Parliament in 1980 as served as the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and Labour for a brief period before taking over as the Chief Minister of Orissa later that year. He became the Chief Minister of Orissa on two more times-in 1985 and 1995.
