House panel visits polluted areas
Angul: The State Assembly sub-committee on environment under the chairmanship of Debasis Nayak visited the most-polluted Bhusan Steel Plant area at Meramundali.
It also visited the Nalco smelter plant at Angul and came to know about the pollution of its ash pond.
People demonstrated in front of the Bindal Sponge when the committee entered the plant. The committee also visited the 1,600-acre ash pond of the Talcher Super Thermal Power Plant (TSTPP) of the NTPC at Kaniha and discussed the fly ash pollution in the entire area.
In reply to a query, the NTPC officials intimated that only 12 per cent of ash out of total 7 million tonnes produced per annum from this 3,000-MW plant is being utilised.
The affected people gathered at NTPC and ventilated their grievances.
The committee also visited the coalmines of the MCL.


Contractual Ayurvedic teachers’ pay hiked
Bhubaneswar: Health and family welfare minister Prasanna Acharya on Sunday said that the state government has hiked the remuneration of the contractual lecturers, readers and professors of the three government Ayurvedic colleges in the state.
He said that there are three government Ayurvedic Colleges in Puri, Berhampur and Balangir where the lecturers, readers and professors were engaged on contract basis and they were paid Rs 8,000, Rs 10 and Rs 12,000 salary per month respectively.
As a result, the candidates were not expressing interest to be engaged on contract basis and the posts were vacant which created hurdles in imparting education.
The Indian Medical Council also raised objections on the vacancies.
Taking this into account and to raise the standard of education in the government ayurvedic colleges, the state government revised the salary.
As decided, the lecturers will now get Rs 16,000, the readers Rs 20,000 and the professors Rs 28,000 per month.
Steps have been taken to fill-up the 13 lecturer, 15 reader and three professors’ posts, Mishra added.


SOSA rues railway apathy towards South Odisha
Berhampur: The South Odisha Students’ Association (SOSA) has taken strong exception to the gross apathy of the railways towards the South Odisha region.
The Association, while petitioning railways minister Mamata Banerjee, alleged that most of the districts being backward here lack railway lines while districts like Ganjam and Rayagada having railway links lack basic infrastructure and cater more to freight than passengers with inadequate trains.
The major railway stations, including Berhampur, are languishing while issues raised in the Parliament go unheeded.
The recent spurt in Maoist menace has made the situation more miserable, it stated.
The long-standing local demand for a railway coaching terminal at Berhampur is yet to come up that could cater to the needs of three districts here.
Multi-functional complexes were announced for 50 railway stations across the country in the previous railway Budget and yet Berhampur was left high and dry despite being classified grade-A rendering services to over 5 million people.
Besides, genuine demands like Gunupur-Therubali railway line, new trains between Berhampur-Rourkela and Berhampur-Koraput and extension of Odisha Sampark Kranti Express train up to Berhampur need to be looked into, The Association appealed.
The Association has also appealed for a railway manufacturing unit or establishment of railway personnel, staff training, finance, traffic institutes in south Odisha deeming the backwardness of the region and recognizing the East Coast Railway (ECoR)’s contributions to the central kitty.


SP demands implementation of food security schemes as per SC norms
Balangir: President of the district unit of the Samajwadi Party Arun Mishra on Saturday alleged that the guidelines issued by the Food Rights Commissioners of the Supreme Court to prevent starvation deaths are not being followed and implemented properly in Balangir district resulting in the hunger deaths of as many as five members of the Jhintu Bariha family of Chhabripali village in Khaprakhol block recently.
I personally raised this issue. The Samajwadi Party staged a dharna before the district collectorate on October 2 last yeardemanding security measures for Jhintu Bariha and his family, he told newsmen here.
Mishra said that his party had also earlier petitioned the governor seeking action against the concerned officials who were not taking steps for protection of the Jhintu Bariha family.
Had the food security measures been implemented properly and loopholes and pilferage in the functioning of the public distribution system (PDS) been checked, the starvation deaths could have been averted, he argued.
It is unfortunate that even after pumping in Rs 10,000 crore to the KBK region poor tribal people like those of the Bariha family are dying out of starvation, he alleged.
Mishra demanded action against the officials responsible for the deaths.
He also demanded an inquiry into the deaths as per the guideline of the Food Rights Commissioners appointed by the Supreme Court. He wondered why no action has been taken against the district collector in the regard.


Varsity status for Bhawanipatna college likely
Bhawanipatna: Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Srikant Jena on Saturday said that efforts would be made to upgrade the five-year-old Government Autonomous College of Bhawanipatna into a university.
He was the chief guest on the concluding day of the college’s golden jubilee celebrations.


Port entry pass racket busted
Paradip: The Crime Branch department of the CISF on Sunday busted another racket of PPT (Paradip Port Trust) gate pass and arrested a person, Prahallad Pradhan of Kanas in Puri district who later handed over to the Marine Police here.
It was alleged that Pradhan, with the help of computer, was making duplicate port entry passes and selling them to the labourers at a price of Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 each to enable the irregular labourers to go inside the port’s prohibited area and do work in the absence of the regular PPT workers.
The police forwarded Pradhan to court.


Vyasa Sarobar Mela concludes
Jajpur Road: The 11-day-long Vyasa Sarobar Mela and Vyasa Mahotsav concluded recently on a high note.
The century-old mega festival was inaugurated by MLA and Opposition leader Bhupinder Singh.
The closing ceremony was attended by finance and excise minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, Urban development minister Badri Narayan Patra, Korei MLA Preeti Ranjan Ghadei and Jajpur collector Dhiren Das.
Eminent persons in various fields were felicitated on the occasion.
They include first chairman of Jajpur Road-Vyasanagar NAC Kahnu Charan Samal, first organising secretary of Vyasanagar College governing body Balaram Sahu, senior-most journalist of the town Krishna Chandra Samal, veteran footballer Janardan Rout (Danu), former principal Padmanabh Malla, trade union leader and littérateur Mayadhar Nayak, who were honoured with the prestigious Vyasa Gouraba and Vyasa Ratna awards.
Vice-Chairman of Vyasanagar Municipality Hrudananda Samal (Tuna) released an album of his own on the occasion.
Colourful cultural programmes like Odissi, Sambalpuri, Gotipua, Chhau dance and musical orchestra were held on the occasion.
More than 300 stalls were erected in the mela ground which also drew huge crowd.
Corporate houses like Tata Steel also opened their stall to apprise people about various achievements and developmental works of the company.
Over five lakh people from Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Bhadrak and other areas visited the fair.


Inter-district U-16 cricket tourney: Puri enters Super League round
Bhubaneswar: Puri defeated Bhubaneswar-B by 104 runs in the group-D final match and entered the super league round of the Inter-district U-16 Cricket tournament held at BOSE Ground in Cuttack on Sunday.
Winning the toss, Puri scored 201 runs in 50 overs.
Rabinarayan Pradhan and Deepak Sahu scored 27 and 25 runs respectively.
In reply, Deepak Sahu and Subrat Mondal of Puri bagged four and three wickets respectively and bundled out Bhubaneswar innings for only 97 runs in 27.1 overs.
Bhubaneswar-A and Balasore emerged group-A and group-B champion and entered the super league round.
Similarly, Cuttack-A and Cuttack-B emerged champion in group-C and group-E and entered the super league round. Khurda became group-F champion and in super league round.
The top four finishers of the super league will qualify for the semifinals.
Both the semifinals and the final would be two-day and 90 over contests.


Bus owners’ body secy shot at
Berhampur: Panic gripped the silk city following a murderous attack on Ganjam Private Bus Owners’ Association secretary Munir Baig who sustained bullet injuries when an unidentified miscreant pulled his trigger on him on Saturday night.
Following the incident, bus services got disrupted in the entire district on Sunday.
According to reports, a miscreant had gone to the Khaja street while Baig was at his office at around 9.30 PM and after paying due respect, he amazingly shot at Baig.
Sustaining two bullet injuries, one on his hand and another on his abdomen, Baig was rushed to the medical immediately and is stated to be safe.
While Baig’s son Izaj has also sustained injuries confronting the unknown mouser-brandishing miscreant, another local Shied Salman also sustained 2 bullet injuries on his leg when he had tried to catch the miscreant.
The Association resorted to a bandh call in protest without prior notice on Sunday following which some private buses in the town had been off the road while transportation services got disrupted in the rural areas of the district.
The locals of Khaja Street had also blocked the Aska Road in protest of the firing.


3 jail staffs hurt in UTP assault
Puri: The jail staffs including the jailor were injured when an Under-trial prisoner attacked them inside the Puri Jail premises here on Sunday.
Sources in the jail said that the incident took place when one Rohit Nayak, an UTP from Begunia suddenly attacked the jail staffs when they were imparting yoga training to the prisoners in the morning hours.
However, Nayak was later overpowered by the jail security personnel.
The exact cause of the attack is not yet known.
Investigation is on.


Another meet to end rift on titanium project
Bhubaneswar:: Concerned over the rift between partners of Titanium Products Pvt Ltd (TPPL), an Indo-Russian joint venture for setting up India’s first titanium unit in Odisha, the state government has decided to convene yet another meeting next month, official sources said.
As three meetings between the promoters of TTPL failed to yield any result, the state government will convene yet another meeting in a bid to resolve the dispute; Industries minister Raghunath Mohanty informed.
A MoU for the Rs 2,000-crore project which was to be completed by October 2010, was signed in October 2008.
The project could not progress due to dispute between TPPL’s Indian partner Saraf Agencies Limited and the Russians over 200 acre of land near Chhatrapur in Ganjam district.
Indian and Russian promotors have 45 per cent and 55 per cent equity stake in the joint venture company.
The dispute started when the State owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) alloted 200 acre of land in name of Kolkata based Saraf Agencies last year.
Objecting to the allocation of land to one partner instead of the joint venture company., the Russian engineers made it clear that they were not going to start work on the project unless the land was allotted to the JV Company.
The state government, in a joint meeting with partners, asked them to resolve the issue amicably soon. “However, they have failed to resolve the issue, Mohanty said.
Besides a meeting here, the partners have met once at Delhi and also in Russia. But the deadlock continues.


JSPL bid to promote education of girl child
Bhubaneswar: In Odisha, there are 3.2 lakh out-of-school children, of whom almost 2 lakh are girls. There is a huge gap between the educational achievement of boys and girls. Twenty out of the thirty districts of Odisha have female literacy rates lower than the national average.
Only 44 per cent of the children enrolled are girls, and tribal girls make up only 18 per cent of the total girls enrolled. Socio-economic factors and low quality of education available for the children in poor and marginalised communities are the major reasons for this discrepancy.
Believing that if one educates a girl then her family will automatically get educated, JSPL begun organising Best of Luck Gift Distribution Ceremony in 10 peripheral High Schools in Angul district covering 243 girls who are appearing at matriculation examination this year at Raijharan High School, Mallikeswar High School, Benagadia High School, Centenary Tribal High School, Ambapal-Natada High School, Badakerjang GP High School, Badakerjang GP High School, Gondibedha High School, and Raijharan GP High School.
All the girls are felicitated with a gift in the presence of the school administrators and other girls, which not only boosts their morale to do well in the examination but also motivates them to peruse education further.
To develop the confidence of the girls, women employees are involved in distribution of the good luck gifts so that the girl child can make them as their role model and succeed in near future.