New Indian Express reports on a response given in the assembly regrading the status of the Ranch-Vijaywada highway. Following are some excerpts:
Work on the Orissa part of the Visakhapatnam-Ranchi Highway would be started after the detailed project report (DPR) is cleared by the Centre, Works Minister AU Singhdeo informed the Assembly on Friday.… the Minister said that 1,219 km of the highway would pass through Orissa.The road would connect Motu, Malkangiri, Koraput, Aska, Boudh, Keonjhar and Tiring. Singhdeo said that 237 km of the road will be national highway, 106 km would be under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and 215 km would be constructed with World Bank funding adding DPR is being prepared for 610 km.… the Minister said that 167 km of the road would pass through Malkangiri, 138 km through Koraput and 127 km through Rayagada districts respectively. It would pass through tribal and backward districts in which the Naxalites have spread their base.Tenders have been floated for 64.3 km long Malkangiri-Jeypore road. Besides, work has already been started for 80 km-long Phulbani-Bhanjanagar road with Rs 20 crore estimate. SMEC International Private Limited has been entrusted the survey work for by-pass to Koraput town.
… the Union rural development ministry has released in one go Rs 466 crore towards Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), …
He told the media that Rs 1,684 crore had been sanctioned for Orissa under PMGSY, out of which Rs 466 crore has now been released.
“Under PMGSY scheme, roads for 12,539 km have been approved by the Centre for Orissa, of which construction on 6,656 km has been completed,” he added. …
Singh said the Sampurna Gramin Rozgar Yojana would be implemented in those districts not covered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
A sum of Rs 46.91 crore had been sanctioned for Orissa under the SGRY for the current fiscal, of which Rs 34.25 crore had been released and Rs 3.60 crore utilised so far, he said. …
The minister also informed that the “below poverty line (BPL)” census for 2002 was over but clarifications have been sought from the planning commission on the number of BPL families in “adjusted share”.
The state government had requested the Centre that selection of Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) beneficiaries for 2007-08 be allowed from the permanent IAY waitlist prepared by the state on the basis of BPL census 1997 as, the state administration feels, the 2002 census is incomplete.
Apart from Hindi music, Orissa stands at top in production of album songs, which comprise non-filmy songs with a local flavor. In Orissa album songs are commonly known as devotional songs, and modern songs.
According to Chitralipi Magazine, every year more than 300 albums are being released by Oriya music industry. And more than 75 lakhs audiocassettes and CDs are being sold in Orissa market.
Interestingly, in the Orissa market, non Oriya singers like Sonu Nigam, Mohammad Aziz, Udit Narayan and Babul Supriyo are more popular. Recording of all the cassettes is done in Orissa’s studio and dubbing is done in Mumbai, Kolkatta and Chennai. Having seen the popularity of album songs, the singers have been featuring in the video of their songs.
Promoted by the Chennai based Sun Network, the station promises to fill listners’ daily dose of entertainment with loads of superhit music and the best of RJs round-the clock.
“It would be witty, adventurous, cheeky and stylish,” said head, Operations and Programming, Nisha Narayanan talking to mediapersons here.
The station will position itself as a single source of contemporary entertainment, driven mostly by the choice and taste of listeners. “It would reflect the local flavour of the city and aim to pep up the spirit of youths as well as other age groups,” she said. The station can be heard at a radius of 60 km off Cuttack.
Unlike other stations, 93.5 SFM (where S stands for superhit) would be recognised as a “format radio station” with single and dual hour shows instead of four-hour block programmes to bring in an air of freshness and pace to establish a distinct style among the listeners.
The programmes would be interspersed with timely information on weather, traffic movement in the city and on highways and sports updates.
This website has a list of radio stations in Orissa. With new FM stations coming up so fast, this list is not completely up-to-date as of writing this. But it would be a good future reference. This other list shows the FM channels all over India that have been allocated in phase II.
New Indian Express reports the starting of the BPO company Medwrite in Bhubaneswar. Following is an excerpt from that report.
MedWrite India, a Hyderabad based healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, launched its city operations on Wednesday.
The state-of-the-art centre will engage 200 trained professionals. Addressing mediapersons, chief executive officer Srinivas Rao said plans are afoot to raise the head-count to 500 professionals by the fall of 2008.
It handles medical billing and transcription services to a vast number of hospitals, clinics and physicians across the United States.
The firm would shortly be launching a free training programme for undergraduates and graduates to cater to the growing needs of skilled manpower in the industry. MedWrite is chosen as the international partner of MedQuist, a leading medical transcription company in the US …
Various news reports mention the following time changes in the ECOR schedule starting from July 1 2007. Following is based on the Statesman’s report.
One pair of tri-weekly Garib Rath Super Fast train between Bhubaneswar and Ranchi and a new Weekly Express train between Bhubaneswar and Rameswaram will be introduced shortly.
Khurda Road-Angul-Khurda Road Fast Passenger will be extended to Puri.
2843/2844 Puri-Ahmedabad-Puri Tri-weekly Express will run four times a week instead of thrice a week.
5CP & 7CP/6CP & 8CP Cuttack-Paradeep-Cuttack Passenger train will have new stoppages at Badabandha.
As part of the modernisation works being undertaken in Sambalpur, East Coast Railway has decided to close down Sambalpur Road flag station from 1 July.
The running days of Bhubaneswar–Chennai–Bhubaneswar Weekly Super Fast Express will be changed in the new time table from 1 July. Bhubaneswar-Chennai Weekly Super Fast Express will leave Bhubaneswar on every Thursday instead of Fridays. Similarly, Chennai-Bhubaneswar Weekly Super Fast Express leaving Chennai on Saturdays will now leave on Fridays.
Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Bhubaneswar Konark Express and Bhubaneswar-Chennai-Bhubaneswar Weekly Super Fast Train will be augmented with one AC-3 tier and one sleeper coach each from 1 July 2007.
The site trainyatra.com is a nice site to find train schedules. For example, to find all trains that pass through Bhubaneswar click here and for Puri click here. Looking at both schedule one notices that 35 different trains start from either Bhubaneswar or Puri.
Amit Spinning, which was a leading spinner in the country, has now moved into organic cotton farming with 10,000 acres of farmland under organic cotton in Gujarat and a similar size in Orissa.
Pragativadi reports that a mega water park is being built 6kms from Phulnakhara, in between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Following are some excerpts from that report.
The proposed water park will have several provisions such as several rides, interactive play area, fun slides, float slide, speed coaster, wave pool, splash water, swimming pool, kids pool, live music, concerts, DJ and rain dance. This apart, it will have an exclusive park for the people to roam about, different types of costumes, video games, indoor games, food & beverages, parking facility, advertisement & publicity, film shooting, special events, baby sitting facility, bus facility at select places and ATM facility. … The company has future project for establishing an Amusement Park with roller coaster rides etc. The park would provide highest level of service, quality, safety as far as construction, maintenance and operation are concerned.It would also boost the tourism industry of Orissa. One of the novel features of the park is the wave pool which is a replica of an ocean. The simulating waves created in the pool provide an exotic fun. One can either use a raft or choose to simply sweep off his feet at the shore.The pools are designed and manufactured to allow for gently swaying waves or powerful larger waves for fast paced body or boogie board surfing. It simulates a beach-like feeling inside the park.
Economic Times reports road development related to POSCO’s proposed operations. Following are excerpts from that report.
… the government has decided to develop 600 km of highways, to be called Posco roads, to provide connectivity for the 12 million-tonne capacity steel plant in Orissa. The Rs 4,000-crore highway would be constructed on built-operate-transfer (BOT) model and would be completed by 2010.
The projects are part of phase-III of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP). The Posco package consists of seven road stretches, including Panikholi-Keonjhar-Rimoli on national highway (NH)-215 and Chandikhole-Duburi on NH-200. The Cuttack-Paradip state road, jointly funded by the Orissa government, Paradip Port Trust and the roads ministry, will also help serve the transport of goods to and from Posco’s steel plant.
“NH-215 and NH-200 will be specifically geared to carry iron-ore traffic,” the official said. “The roads will serve Orissa’s industrial requirements for upcoming projects in the state, but Posco will be the biggest beneficiary,” he added. …
Apart from road connectivity being provided by the Centre and the state government, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to link Haridaspur and Paradip by railways has been formed by Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) in which Posco has 10% equity,” a Posco spokesperson said. …
Posco-India will also build a captive port at Jatadhari, 10 km from Paradip and a captive power plant with a capacity of 1300 mw. …
The company will also lay pipelines for industrial water utilisation from Jobra barrage.
Financial Express reports the establishment of a new multi-specialty hospital in Bhubaneswar. Following are excerpts of that report.
The Orissa-based Ayush Hospital & Trauma Care Pvt Ltd (AHTC) is setting up a multi-speciality hospital in Bhubaneswar with an investment of Rs 13.5 crore.
“The hospital is ready and it will be thrown open for patients from the first week of July 2007”, the founder director of the hospital, Dr Ashok Acharya, told FE. …
Besides the cardiac facilities, the hospital will have to its credit an MRI unit and a critical care ambulance that can bring critical patients from any corner of the state.
On the ongoing tussle to make MCK comply with R & R policies MP Dharmendar Pradhan has compared MCL’s hirings with other similar companies hirings. New Indian Express gives a report on this and we give some excerpts from that report.
The average annual production of coal in Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) is 30 million tonne with a workforce of 1.02 lakh; with 95,000 manpower, the annual production of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) is about 23 million tonne, and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) has nearly 90,000 workforce to produce 32 million tonne.
Similarly, the Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) has about 70,000 employees with an annual production of 42 million tonne. The South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) is the largest producer of coal with annual production of 88 million tonne and has 80,000 workforce.
On the other hand, MCL, the second largest producer of coking grade coal in the country with average annual production of 80 million tonne, has given jobs to 20,591 people. The company has been facing resistance from the locals for its poor policy on resettlement and rehabilitation.
MCL’s Chairman and Managing Director Aviram Sharma was caught on the wrong foot when Dharmendra Pradhan, MP, sought to know from him the manpower position in other subsidiaries of Coal India vis-a-vis their production at a high level meeting here on Thursday. The meeting was convened to discuss the contentious issue of R&R policy in MCL areas.
Pradhan told the meeting that there are nearly 5,000 rightful claimants for compensatory job in MCL. Besides, MCL is not doing a favour to them as they have already lost their land and livelihood, he argued.
Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal, who presided over the meeting, directed MCL and NTPC to implement the policy and report it every week on the progress.
The Jharkhand-based public sector Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) has established 68 schools in various parts of its working areas of different standards besides financial and other infrastructural help to 195 schools situated in and around CCL command area.
CCL has recently decided to establish on engineering college for the benefit of the people of Jharkhand.
CCL spent over Rs 1042 crore on social overhead onwards 1998. It had constructed over 160 km of heavy duty coal transportation roads. 300 km of approach road and equal length of colony roads, 6 major bridges on river Damodar, 59,455 permanent houses, 19 hospitals besides water supply schemes covering over a population of 5.02
lakh. CCL is also one of the major employers in Jharkhand.
It has 62,827 employees on the roll of which 35 per cent belonged to Schedules caste and Scheduled tribes.
The company is also one of the major contributors to state exchequer. The state has earned over Rs 2811.56 crore of royalty and other taxes from CCL?s mining activities after the constitution of Jharkhand state. …
In the financial year 2006-07, CCL has constructed/repaired 35 km new roads in nearby villages in its command area. Over and above, CCL is to organise 215 health camps for various specializations during this financial year.
All you need is one plain sheet of paper. You can type or hand-write your application with all the questions you want to ask, Address it to the PIO and sign underneath [yeah, that is all]. You can ask multiple question in same application. Please look at some sample applications
Few things to note:
Mention that you are exercising your right under RTI 2005
Frame the questions to best of your understanding as “precise” answers depend on precise questions.
2. Attach personal check for 24 Cents [equivalent to Rs. 10] and mention in your application that you have attached it. Checks should be made in favor of ” Embassy of India, Washington DC”.
3. Attach your passport first page copy(this is proof that you’re an Indian Citizen)
4. In the application give your return address where they can respond (including email)
5. Send the application and the check attached to:
The Public Information Officer,
2107 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
USA – 20008
Contact: Mr. George Kutty – georgek@indiagov.org
Statesman reports that the Orissa government has asked MCL to provide jobs to displaced people. Following are some excerpts from that report.
The state government today directed Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd to provide jobs to all those affected or displaced persons within four weeks and also asked other PSUs ~ NTPC and Nalco ~ to furnish weekly progress reports on rehabilitation measures. The decisions were taken at a high level meeting convened by revenue minister Mr Manmohan Samal here today. …
Mr Samal today directed that all categories of land losers and affected persons ought to be provided with employment within four weeks. Interestingly, he is also believed to have told the Central PSU that they should go by the Land Acquisition Act and not the Coal Bearing Act. The implementation of Coal Bearing Act had created problems since much of the land was notified but lying unacquired physically for several years. In the process, the land owner was unable to either sell or do anything with the land. With regards to employment of affected persons, it is learnt that the contentious issue relates to what is categorised as “C” type affected persons. These were people who had lost their land practically and not their homestead land.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs today approved an average increase of 14 per cent in the coal royalty paid to state governments. …
“The producing states were demanding an increase in the rates as royalty on coal had not been revised since 2002,”Chidambaram said.
He added that the increase in revenues for the states, barring Bengal, would be 24 per cent for coal and 27 per cent for lignite. “The revenues of the coal-producing states will increase to Rs 3,718 crore from Rs 3,000 crore,” he said.
Following are excerpts from a Hindu report which mentions how much more states like Orissa and Kharkhand will get and the rationale behind the increase.
In a further explanation of the rationale for revision, Mr. Chidambaram said: “It is contended [by States] that while coal companies have been revising the prices frequently and since the royalty rates are fixed on tonnage basis, the benefit of higher prices has not been shared with the producing States. Consequently, the share of royalty as a percentage of coal prices has declined.” …
As for the increase in revenue for the coal producing States, it would be Rs. 152 crore for Jharkhand, Rs. 133 crore for Madhya Pradesh, Rs. 105 crore for Andhra Pradesh, Rs. 98 crore for Chhattisgarh and Rs. 90 crore for Orissa, Rs. 89 crore for Maharashtra and about Rs. 43 crore for Uttar Pradesh. In the case of Tamil Nadu which produces lignite, the State Government could expect the revenue from higher royalty to go up by Rs. 28 crore to Rs. 130 crore.
Although, this overdue increase is a welcome step, to address this for the long term the royalty calculation must change to ad valorem basis which automatically reflects the change in the market price and thus minimizes the need to depend on the center for an increase in the rates. In particular, ad valorem royalty rate of coal means that the royalty rates will move with world coal prices. Hindu Business line has an article related to this.
Union minister Jairam Ramesh during his visit stressed that Orissa broaden its horizon beyond minerals and metals. Some of his points were sensible and some others politically motivated. In another posting we give a rejoinder to his politically motivated comment on IIT in Orissa. Here we present some of his good ideas excerpted from a Statesman article.
The export of marine products should grow from its present level of Rs 370 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in five years, he said and added that an action plan to this end had been submitted to the state government. The MPEDA has given an action plan and it proposes to focus on shrimp and prawn cultivation over 20,000 hectares along Balasore and Bhadrak districts. Earlier, Mr Ramesh inaugurated the Quality Control Laboratory’ of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) here today. This laboratory is the fourth in its kind in the country.
Organic ginger and turmeric, coffee and other items can be grown in tribal areas of Orissa and “we have a proposal pending since long with the state government for an organic export zone to be set up at Kandhamal district,” he said. Shellac cultivation was another area where Mayurbhanj district of Orissa has been identified as one of the four districts in the country for promotion of shellac cultivation he said.
He also criticizes Orissa’s focus on mines and metal processing industries. Orissa has the mines. What should it do? Hide it? It can’t. The Hoda committee recommends that if states delay in making a recommendation then the central government can make a unilateral recommendation. Now if that happens the minerals may go out of state and the state, which now only gets paltry royalty due to central govt. craziness of having very low royalty rates, will lose out on development associated with value addition(like making steel). Value addition leads to infrastructure developments such as roads, railways, ports, townships, etc. So unless Orissa pays attention and follows through on its policy of only recommending mines to companies that will do value addition, and helping the companies to do the value addition, it will lose out a lot. So Orissa’s focus on the mines, steel and aluminum is not misplaced. However the point about looking at other sectors is a good one.
Business standard reports that Syndicate Bank and Indian Overseas Bank plan several social schemes involving training villagers. Following are some excerpts from that report.
Syndicate bank said it would take up extension activities in all its rural branches for educating and training villagers in different aspects of agriculture, animal husbandry, plantation and fish rearing.
Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) said it would organise at least three training camps for women in southern Orissa during 2007-08.
“We have decided to organise at least three training camps on tailoring, handicraft and beauty therapy for rural women in southern Orissa towns at Rayagada, Jeypore and Bhawanipatna” …
At Jeypore in Koraput district, the bank has decided to impart training to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women.
In Rayagada, training to be given to the weaker section people.
Similarly in Bhawanipatna, the district headquarters of Kalahandi district, women in general categories will get training.
In each camp, scheduled to start in July or August, at least 20 women would be participated.
The respective branch managers would select the women to get training, he said …
After getting training for a fortnight, they would receive financial assistance from the bank for establishment of units in various fields.
“Our corporate office has agreed for three training camps initially and if more number of women come forward for skill and entrepreneurship development, more number of camps will be organised” …
Syndicate Bank would conduct 58 extension activities during 2007-08.
The bank’s Berhampur branch has recently held a farmers’ meeting on jatropha plantation at Narendrapur in Ganjam district in collaboration with the Orissa Nature Care & Council (ONCC), an organisation imparting training on jatropha cultivation for bio-diesel.
ONCC provided technical know-how and inputs for jatropha planting while the bank was financing farmers, …
Syndicate Bank offered Rs 10,000 to each of the 55 farmers in the village for taking up of jatropha plantation, …
Jatropha cultivation was done in about 105 acres in the village.
Syndicate bank would donate Rs 10,000 each for renovation and cleaning of ponds in 10 villages during the current year.
New Indian Express reports that the central govt. has suggested that Orissa apply for an agricultural export zone. Following are excerpts from that article.
Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday hinted that an Agriculture Export Zone (AEZ) in Orissa could be considered once the proposal for the same was received by the Centre.
Ramesh, who met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the Secretariat, told reporters that the AEZ would be established in Kandhmal for organic turmeric. …
The State Government has already identified land for establishment of the AEZ in Kandhmal where a majority of the tribals cultivate organic turmeric.
Ramesh said that he requested the Chief Minister to concentrate more on export of organic coffee from Koraput, ginger and turmeric from Kandhmal and Sal from Mayurbhanj which could generate more employment opportunities.
The Union Minister said that Orissa exported goods worth Rs 10,400 crore last year, 90 per cent of which accounted for minerals only while the handicraft and other non-traditional products had a very negligible share.
Though Orissa is known for its famous handicraft, the export of such products stood only at 3 to 4 per cent of the total export of the country. Ramesh said the State had exported marine products to the tune of Rs 350 crore last year adding that this has to cross Rs 1000 crore in the next five years.
The Centre, he said, would sanction a cold storage for perishable products in Bhubaneswar and another for marine products in Paradip soon.
A one year old baby, named Kalinga, was abandoned by its parents and relatives; after 41 days she was taken back by them. This happened in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. Should not we be outraged by the fact that the baby was abandoned in the first place? Should not the parents be put in jail for abandoning their months old baby? And what has this got to do with the growth of Orissa. Read more and watch the following embedded video to find out why this is such a sweet and charming story and its happening in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, makes Bhubaneswar an attractive place.
You see Kalinga is a baby elephant which got isolated from its herd when the herd had strayed into Bhubaneswar from the adjacent Chandaka Elephant Sanctuary. The wild life staff tried many ways for the baby elephant to be taken back by its herd, and finally yesterday a herd took it back. Although the wild life staff which fed it with lactogen is worried about its future feeding, they are extremely happy that the baby elephant was taken back to the wild.This is Bhubaneswar. A city with a similar sized elephant sanctuary just next to it. We discussed this sanctuary in earlier postings (here and here). I have never gone inside the sanctuary, but I will definitely go there in my next visit and spend some time in the Bharatpur watch tower to watch elpehants in the wild. I wonder if there is any other city in India where you have an elephant sanctuary right next to it. This aspect of Bhubaneswar is not much known. May be it should remain that way despite this posting.
Note: New Indian Express has a nice report on the forest officers attempt to reunite the lost baby elephant with its herd. Following are some excerpts.
It’s something unheard of but Kalinga which slipped into a small well after getting isolated from its main pack that strayed into an OUAT farm on May 5, finally found acceptance on Saturday from a group of 22 elephants in forests of Chandaka, on the City outskirts.
Two forest guards monitoring the calf saw how it was welcomed into folds of two herds near the watch tower of the protected area. Kalinga was allowed to roam near a water point adjoining the watch tower at Bharatpur.
The herds – in groups of four and 18 – reached the spot at 5.30 pm where a female, as if in a gesture of welcome, tugged at the calf before dragging it into the group. The rest encircled the baby and vanished into the jungle. …
The Chandaka Sanctuary officials had tried the reunion earlier but in vain. Kalinga was kept confined in a breakable enclosure near sanctuary’s entrance at Godibari but the herds would pass by it.
However, DFO Akshay Kumar Patnaik was not one to give up hope. The calf was shifted near Bharatpur watch tower on June 11 as the area is frequented by several herds because of the water point. On the first day itself, two herds came calling but Kalinga found no acceptance.
Then the calf was freed from its enclosure so as to facilitate interaction with the approaching herds. On Tuesday, three packs came across the calf and approached it but Kalinga was reluctant and returned to its base where it is fed and taken care of by the forest officials, Patnaik said.
On Saturday, Kalinga had ‘lactogen’ for lunch and what followed was nothing short of milestone in wildlife management.
But sanctuary officials are worried about Kalinga’s diet as it was on lactogen for last 41 days and could face difficulty in taking milk from its mother.
Following is a picture of Kalinga with a mature elephant trying to take it back. This did not work out. The picture is from Kalinga Times photo gallery and the photo was taken by DFO Akshaya Patnaik. But the next attempt succeeded. (CNN-IBN also has a nice video.)
There are several other charming stories associated with the Chandaka Sanctuary. Decades ago a royal Bengal tiger from the sanctuary jumped into the enclosure of another tiger in the adjoining Nandan Kanan zoo. More about this another day.
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