State to conduct census on farmers
Bhubaneswar: Rattled by the ongoing farmers’ death, the agriculture department has decided to conduct a census of the farmers.
Of late, it has also decided to give loans to the bhaga chasi (marginal farmers- the farmer who takes land from the main farmers and cultivates).
The landlords and main farmers will have to remain as guarantor for the marginal farmers, said agriculture minister Damodar Rout.
Fifteen farmers have so far committed suicides in the state due to crop failure and loan burden.
But the new scheme is likely to bring any relief for the poor farmers as no land lord would come forward to be a guarantor for them.


DIG ranges to come up in prisons
Bhubaneswar:The state government is planning to set up ranges in prison department on the lines of the police departments.
It would be headed by DIGs (Deputy Inspector General).
Three DIG ranges would be set up. The DIGs would monitor the functioning of jails in their respective jurisdictions.
They will look into the activities of jails falling under their purview, Janaranjan Das, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of prisons said.
The prison department had already decided to keep the dreaded criminals in fetters. Besides, the sensitive Jharpada jail would be upgraded in terms of security arrangements. The authorities would also take measures to evict encroachment around the Jharpada jail.
We will soon carry out anti-encroachment drive around the Jharpada and other jails. Besides, we would improve illumination of jail surroundings, Das said.


State’s second IIIT in Berhampur
Bhubaneswar: Berhampur has been identified as the location for the second Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the state.
Delivering the state focus address in the seminar 'Moving Ahead with Innovation' organised by the Odisha Chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday, IT secretary Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said that in spite of the current global downturn in IT sector the effort was on to prepare human resources to meet the growing need of the state to roll out e-governance.
Citing some of the innovations in this field which has yielded good results he said that e-procurement processes rolled out in Odisha just over a year ago has seen over Rs 27,000 crore worth of tenders decided through this process in the state.
A tender worth Rs 50 crore was decided in less than a month compared to a few months that used to take under the earlier system.
E-enabling also helped cut the drudgery of the managements of over 400 aided colleges in the state in getting their salary from government every month.
Now it gets credited to their bank accounts automatically and they no longer have to spend days chasing files and bureaucrats in the State Secretariat.
The effort is now on to enable users in the state to pay their VAT, transport taxes and electricity bills in the next couple of months.
He rued that while 95 per cent of the Central Excise dues and 67 per cent of the Service Tax in India is being collected electronically without any procedural hindrance the apprehension of audit authorities is slowing down the implementation of a similar system for collection of VAT in the state.
The process of e-registration services in Odisha is almost ready for deployment.
Delivering the welcome address of the inaugural session, SS Nandurdikar, chairman of Odisha State council of CII, cited the case of the field staff in Paradeep Phosphates Ltd using mobile phones to track dispatch and movement of fertilisers as examples of the innovation that has positively impacted service delivery.
The Theme address was delivered by Vice Chairman of CII Eastern Region ICTE Sub-Commiittee Arup Dasgupta and vote of thanks was delivered by Convener of CII Orissa IT panel Manoj Panda.


Villagers stage blockade of NH-23
Rourkela: Villagers on Friday began an indefinite blockade of a National Highway at Silipunji near here demanding release of 30 people, who were arrested for allegedly having links with Maoists.
About 500 villagers of Chandiposh, Mundatola and Silipunji under Bonai sub-division of Sundargarh district, led by Birmitrapur MLA George Tirkey, sat on a dharna about 30 km from here claiming that the police had arrested innocent villagers branding them as Maoists.
They blocked NH-23 linking Rourkela and Bhubaneswar via Talcher by felling trees leaving hundreds of vehicles, mostly trucks, stranded.
The villagers also blocked the Rourkela-Barsuan rail line used for transporting raw material to Rourkela Steel Plant from the mining areas.
Thirty people from three villages were arrested on August 27 on charges of having links with the Maoists, who had abducted Ajit Bardhan, sub-inspector of Koida police station, on July 16.


Tusker brought under control
Angul: The tusker, which had gone berserk and killed its mahout in the Tikarapada reserve forest on November 4, was tranquilized and controlled.
Tranquiliser expert Kamal Lochan Purohit from Nandankanan Zoological Park brought the 10-year-old tusker under control Thursday, official sources said.
Meanwhile, a compensation of Rs 1 lakh from the government and Rs.25,000 from district Red Cross society was given to the next kin of the deceased mahout Bimal Pradhan.
Efforts were now on to ascertain as to why the trained elephant behaved in an unusual manner and killed its own master, sources said.


Varsha selected for Horlicks Wiz Kid
Bhubaneswar: Varsha Mahapatra, a student of Class XI of BJEM School here, will be representing the state for the final round of Horlicks Wiz Kid-2009.
The five-day event, from November 10 to 15, will be held at Bengaluru.
The project undertaken by Varsha for this competition, ‘Live up my sister, give life to your living,’ aims at promoting awareness for the adoption of orphaned girls.
Besides other laurels, Varsha has bagged three gold and two silver medals in the National Kickboxing Championship besides being awarded the Rashtrapati Puraskar for Guides, the Rajiv Gandhi Prativa Puraskar and the Governor’s Trophy for Odissi dance.
Varsha has also been a part of Bournvita Confidence Championship, Pogo Amazing Kid, India’s Got Talent, Bal Shree and the Little Miss India Contest.


Chief secy visits Ganjam
Berhampur: Chief secretary Tarunkanti Mishra on Friday visited Ganjam district to take stock of the situation prior to the visit of chief minister Naveen Patnaik scheduled on November 10.
Mishra visited the Nandi Foundation, which has been entrusted to supply mid-day meals to schoolchildren.
He also visited ART (AIDS) Centre of the MKCG Medical College along with district officials, including collector VK Pandian.
He then went to Hinjili, the Assembly constituency of the Chief Minister, where a case of farmer’s suicide took place recently.


Clerk caught taking bribe
Bhubaneswar: A Vigilance case was registered against Basudev Padhi, senior clerk, Renewal and Reorganisation Section in the office of CI of Schools, Ganjam Circle, Berhampur, for demand of an illegal gratification of Rs 1,000 from Bhikari Charan Mohanty of village Kalasandhapur under Aska police station for forwarding the renewal recommendation report in favour of his wife who is working as a junior clerk at Nigamananda Uchha Vidyalaya (a private school), Karnoli.
A trap was laid on Friday in the office premises of CI of Schools and Padhi was caught red-handed by Vigilance officers while accepting bribe of Rs 1,000 from Mohanty.
Padhi was arrested by the Vigilance sleuths.


Sakila, Ranjita bag gold in PYKKA
Bhubaneswar: The State Directorate of Sports and Youth Services’ three-daylong state Panchayat Yuva Krida aur Khel Aviyan (PYKKA) group-1 meet, began at Kalinga Stadium here on Friday.
Total 521 sportspersons under-18 age group from 21 districts across the state are participating in the Aviyan.
The players will participate in four disciplines athletics, basketball, wrestling and weightlifting.
Sakila Majhi of Mayurbhanj and Ranjita Hembram of Nuapada bagged gold medals in 1,500 meter boys and girls categories respectively. Rasmi Rekha Majhi of Sundargarh grabbed gold medal in girls’ long jump.
In boys shot-put Gobinda Parida of Rayagada won the gold medal.
Leading achievers will be eligible to represent the state in National Group-I PYKKA meet to be staged at Chennai from November 21 to 24.
State level competitions in Group II, III and IV, featuring football, archery, volleyball, kabaddi, kho-kho and hockey will be held at Biju Patnaik Sports Complex, Nalco Nagar in Angul from November 27 to 29.


East Zone ODI league: Odisha beats Assam
Bhubaneswar:: The Odisha senior woman cricket team defeated Assam team by eight wickets in the east zone women’s one day league held at Dibrgarha in Guwahati on Thursday.
Winning the toss host team elected to bat first and scored 70 runs in 36.3 overs.
In reply, Odisha reached the winning target for the loss of two wickets.


National sub-junior U-15 chess
Bhubaneswar: Sunyasakta Satpathy shared points with Shikha Saha of Gujarat in the seventh round match and scored 4.5 points in the 26th National Sub-junior U-15 Chess championship held at Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai on Friday.
Krushna Mishra suffered a defeat from Akanksha Boghari of Gujarat and scored 2.5 points.
Utkal Ranjan Sahu shared points with Srikanth Ajay of Tamil Nadu and scored 5.5 points by the end of seventh round of the 35th National Sub-junior U-15 Chess championship held on same venue.
Md Ashraf and Baivab Mishra suffered defeat from Pranav Sethy of Maharastra and Mugil Jayavel of Tamil Nadu in their respective seventh round matches and scored 4.5 and 3.5 points respectively.
Satyajit Mohanty and Saswat Khuntia defeated YD Jain and Harshel Mehta of Maharastra in their respective matches and scored 3.5 and three points respectively. Binit Binayak Pati lost his match and scored two points.


IT Premier League today
Bhubaneswar: The two-day long IT Premier League Day and Night Cricket tournament is going to be held at Kalinga Stadium from Saturday.
IT Association of Odisha is organising this tournament.
In two groups six teams of the city will participate in 15 over tennis ball day and night league round matches.
The teams are Laptop, Server, Multimedia, Peripherals, Processor and Printer, said Dayananda Ratho.


Ranji Trophy: Gujarat beats Odisha by 159 runs
Bhubaneswar: Gujarat was bundled out Odisha for 220 runs in the second innings and won by 159 runs in the elite-A group match of the Ranji Trophy held at Ahmedabad on Friday.
Odisha started their innings with 10 runs for the loss of one wicket and all out by the host in 220 runs.
Once again SS Das managed to score only 11 runs in the second innings.
However, Rakesh Mohanty fought well and scored unbeaten 71 runs.
M Patel and Salil Yadev of the winning team bagged three wickets each.
Raju Bhatt grabbed two wickets. SK Trivedi and TK Patel bagged one wicket each.
The host team proceeds for the second match with five points and Odisha yet to open the point.
Earlier, the hosts scored 270 runs in first innings and 301 runs for the loss of six wickets in second innings.
In replay Odisha scored 192 and 220 runs all out.


Bhubaneswar TT from Nov 14
Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Table Tennis Association will organize the two- day 21st Bhubaneswar District Table Tennis championship at Saheed Nagar Indoor Hall from November 14.
Apart from men and women category, the players will participate in junior, sub-junior, cadet and mini cadet boys and girls categories.
The players born in or after January 1993 and 1996 are eligible to participate in junior and sub-junior categories respectively.
The players born in or after January 1998 and 2000 are eligible to participate in cadet and mini-cadet categories of the championship.


2 held for taking obscene pictures of college girl
Jajpur Road: The police arrested Nigam Computer System Proprietor Sanjib Swain of Jagatsinghpur Naugaon and his friend Siba Prasad Sahoo of Kopanda, Jajpur Road, and sent them to jail under IT Act.
The police said Swain had a computer system shop at Jajpur bypass road.
Sahoo who frequented the shop had become a friend of Swain.
Swain had illicit relations with a local college girl and in her ignorance took objectionable photographs in his mobile camera and floated the same to different mobiles of Jajpur Road. Sahoo blackmailed the girl and compelled her to succumb to his wishes, threatening to expose her in a video.
Out of fear the girl left her home. The girl’s father reported the matter to the Jajpur Road police. Police arrested Sahoo and his friend and the search for the third accomplice Gedu is on.
However, the police has not been able to trace the girl.
The police sent Siba and Sanjeeb to Bhubaneswar for polygraph test.


Scribe hurt in attack
Puri: A gang of goons on the Thursday night attacked noted environmentalist and journalist Jagannath Bastia and critically injured him.
Locals and the police rushed him to the district headquarter hospital in a critical condition.
According to the complaint lodged with the Kumbharpara police by Bastia, the attack was a sequel to one of his reports over land grabbing by politicians belonging to the ruling party and the officers besides blatant violation of High Court and the government directives.
A close associate of the local legislator Maheswar Mohanty, who is also vice chairperson of the local civic body Sabyasachi Mahapatra, had allegedly organised the attack, the complaint said.
Bastia was on the way to his home on his bike at about 1.30 PM after finishing the day's job in the Samaj office in Kundheibenta Sahi when some goons waylaid him a few yards away from his office and attacked with blunt objects on his head.
Bastia managed to escape the blow on his head but fell down from his Scooty and they attacked him and fled.
On Friday morning he was shifted to Bhubaneswar for treatment.
Bastia, who is heading the State Beach Protection Council, has been championing for conservation and preservation of natural beauty of the beaches of the state which is being destroyed by unscrupulous businessmen and builders.
He was instrumental in securing the underground sweet water zone, the only drinking water supply line of the city.
His tirade against the apartment and hotel builders lobby angered legislator Mohanty who during his tenure as chairman of the Puri Municipality had illegally granted huge land to a hotelier in the prohibited underground sweet water area.



NTPC likely to start TTPS expansion in mid-2010
Bhubaneswar:: The much-awaited expansion of Talcher Thermal Power Plant (TTPS) of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is likely to begin in mid-2010.
We will prepare feasibility report for the expansion plan in January next and then go for notification inviting tenders (NIT).
NTPC is likely to begin expansion work some time in the middle of next year, NTPC Chairman R S Sharma said here after meeting chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here on Friday evening.
The plant is expected to generate as much as 1,320 MW of power after its expansion, sources said.
NTPC, which bought over 460-MW Talcher unit from the state government in 1993, was planning to ramp up the capacity by adding two super critical units of 660 MW each with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore.


FCI Talcher plant to resume production soon: Jena
Sambalpur: Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers, Srikant Jena in a review meeting with the RDC (ND), collectors of Sambalpur and Bargarh, officers of agriculture department and sales officers of fertilizer companies assured adequate supply of chemical fertilizers to the state for the coming crop.
The Centre during the last kharif season supplied fertilizers to the state more than its demand, Jena said in the review meeting with facts and figures.
The Union minister during his first visit to Sambalpur was given a warm welcome by Congress activists led by the president of district Congress committee (DCC), Sureswar Mishra.
During a media conference in the evening in Congress office, Jena said that the Talcher plant of the Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI) would be revived soon for the greater interest of the state and country.
Five such closed fertilizer units would be opened soon and Cabinet decision in this regard has already been taken, he informed.
After sanction of revival package, global tender for renovation would be floated, he said.
If proposal from urban local bodies of western Odisha would be submitted to the Centre for inclusion of more towns under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the latter would consider the request. Jena said this since the chief minister during his current visit to New Delhi has placed such demand for Cuttack city only leaving all others behind and not a single one from western Odisha.
The Congress has no intention to politicise the issue of farmers’ suicide all over the state. Our only request to the state government is to realise the problems of the farmers and take a stand to safeguard their livelihood,” Jena said.
The minister also hinted on the proposed ESI hospital at Rengali and opening of generic medicine stores to sell medicines at affordable prices in every district headquarters hospital.
Senior leaders of the party including Sriballav Panigrahi, Narasingha Mishra, Kishore Patel and Duryodhan Gardia hold discussion with the minister on various problems of the region and the state.


Transport stir: Power plants face crisis
Angul: NTPC, Nalco and various other power plants are facing power crisis as contract workers engaged in coal transportation have struck work here at the MCL.
Around 8,000 contract workers consisting of drivers, helpers and supervisors have called for a total strike, demanding wage hike, medical facilities and other benefits. Coal transportation from Hingula, Bharatpur, Jagannath, Balaram, Ananta, Lingaraj and Bhubaneswari mines of MCL have come to a halt.
The 3,000 MW Talcher Super Thermal Power Project of NTPC is now producing 1250 MW less power.
Power transmission is disrupted to southern and eastern region states.
As against a daily requirement of 14,000 tonnes of coal, Nalco received only 4,000 tonnes of coal on Friday.
Presently it has only two days of stock at hand.
About 70 lakh tonnes of coal is lying at MCL.
Coal transportation by rail has also been affected as coal needs to be carried from the colliery to the railway siding by tippers.
MCL PRO said that it is not possible to enhance the running contract works to pay more to the striking workers.
Talcher sub-collector told that the administration was not intimated about the strike. Disruption of coal transportation could lead the administration to promulgate ESMA.


Supplies dept helpline gets good response
Bhubaneswar: The toll-free number ‘155335’is buzzing nonstop. Callers are complaining about non-availability of kerosene, sugar and LPG. APL family members are asking about the non-supply of ration cards in Khurda district.
Farmers are calling up to know about the modus operandi of paddy procurement in Nuapada and Kalahandi districts.
On the opening day on Thursday, the Sanjog Helpline already registered more than 100 inquiries and complaints.
And it is receiving calls every minute from all parts of the state.
People are happy that their queries are responded promptly and assured with timely action.
Officials in the department of food supplies and consumer welfare (FSCW) are baffled over the flooding of calls.
They had never imagined the level of dissatisfaction over the PDS.
The officials are busy sorting out complaints and sending them to their concerned counterparts for immediate redressal.
The department’s secretary, Manoj Ahuja, who was sitting at the call centre for more than an hour, was astonished at the level of the people’s response.
Senior IAS officers are also calling up to check if the Sanjog Helpline is really working or is a farce, said a top official.
As per the government announcement, the complaint receiving system was made operational on November 5 and the public response is spontaneous, said Ahuja.