Naveen: If you love your people, your post, power would be a means to transform the lives of people

Bhubaneswar:The Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, was conferred with the ‘Ideal Chief Minister’ Award  by the MIT-World Peace University of Pune. The  ‘Adarsh Mukhyamantri’ Award was handed over to him for his rising popularity among the people of the state.

Patnaik received the prestigious Award  from former President of India Pratibha Patil during the 8th Indian Students Parliament held at MIT-World Peace University campus in Pune.

“I dedicate this honour to the four and half crore people of Odisha who have reposed their faith in us for the past 17 years and continuously blessed us,” Naveen said in response to the conferment of the Award.

He said that more number of people needs to join politics, which he described as the powerful means to work towards development of people.

He said, “If you love your people, your post and the power would be a means to transform the lives of people.”

The chief minister, while addressing the University students at the function, said that even though there has been tremendous achievements in the filed of biology, medicine, IT, mathematics, the evolution that one would have liked to have in governance and public service is still to be achieved.

“Good governance and selfless public service are the pillars of democracy. The biggest challenge before all of us today and especially for my younger friends is –how to strengthen governance and instill public service-in turn strengthening democracy.”

He said, “Twenty years ago I was a political novice. I would have never imagined that I will be standing here as one of the longest serving Chief Ministers of the country. Today, I can say with conviction, that politics is not complicated.  Politics is the most powerful instrument to bring about change in the lives of people. And so it follows that if people are kept at the core of your intentions, efforts and initiatives, then there is no complication.”