___________

The following comparison is based on the article http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Aruna-Roys-bill-seeks-to-fine-tune-clauses-in-Annas-Jan-Lokpal/articleshow/9700516.cms. I will add more to this as I read the bills in more detail and/or come across other comparisons of all three bills.

In http://164.100.47.5/newcommittee/press_release/press/Committee%20on%20Personnel,%20PublicGrievances,%20Law%20and%20Justice/PR%20-%20LB,%202011.pdf the parliament standing committee on this bill asks for a feedback memorandum. Following is a quote from that:

Those desirous of submitting memoranda to the Committee may send two copies thereof, neatly typed in double space (either in English or Hindi) to Shri K.P. Singh, Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, 201, Second Floor, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi-110001 (Tel: 23034201, Fax: 23016784, E-mail: kpsingh@sansad.nic.in and rs-cpers@sansad.nic.in) within fifteen days of publication of this advertisement. Those who are willing to appear before the Committee for oral evidence besides submitting the memorandum may so indicate.

The Date of Publication of the above notice is 20th August, 2011 and the Last date for Submitting a Memorandum is 3rd September, 2011.

Following is a comparison of the Lokpal Bill and JanLokpal Bill by Hindustan Times. The part I agree with is annotated in red.

Following are Aruna Roy’s views as quoted in Economic Times. Her views resonate with me more than the views coming out of Anna’s camp.

Terming Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill "impractical and complicated", noted social activist … Aruna Roy said that giving widespread powers to an unelected body is a "threat to democracy".

"Jan Lokpal is a bill impossible to implement. Also, it derails the checks and balances between the judiciary, executive and other organs of the democratic structure," Roy, 65, who pioneered the right to information (RTI) movement in the country, told IANS in an interview here.

"Not that we agree with the government Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal legislation should be thoroughly deliberated again by activists, lawmakers and all other stakeholders.

"We of course support the democratic right of Hazare to hold demonstrations and fast against the government. That is why we condemned the arrest of Hazare," she said. …

Asked about the huge public support Hazare has drawn, Roy said: "There have been huge gatherings in support of NGO-sponsored agitations, like the Narmada Bachao movement. It might not have got similar publicity, as live TV was not there then."…

Roy, a Magsaysay award winner, said the Jan Lokpal bill is a "giant, complicated exercise" as it tried to extend from the prime minister to a peon.

"It wants to bring the higher judiciary into its ambit, which otherwise should have been under the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010," she said.

She felt that the suggestion of dual duties — curbing corruption and redressing grievances — under the Jan Lokpal was not feasible.

"The Jan Lokpal is a threat to democracy as a powerful, non-elected agency can lead to abuse of power and abuse of authority. Power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely," she quipped.

"Grievance redressal should not be the role of the Lokpal; it should be the work of the executive.

"See, wages of lakhs of workers in the NREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in Rajasthan have not been paid. But that is because the shortage of bank staff and other bureaucratic delays," she said.

The massive organisational setup suggested in the Jan Lokpal will lead to corruption and inefficiency, she cautioned.

"You may be able to find 11 Lokpal members of integrity, but it is difficult to create a clean set-up of thousands of staffers and hold them accountable," Roy said.

The government-drafted Lokpal is also deficient on several fronts, she added. Since it excludes cases under the state governments, there can be no probe against cases like the Adarsh housing society scandal, the Commonwealth Games scam and illegal mining in Karnataka.

She said excluding the prime minister and the higher judiciary was wrong. "This is a wrong practice. Nobody should be above the law," she said, adding that there should be certain safeguards. "Like both the Lokpal and the Supreme Court should agree on a probe against the prime minister."

Roy also suggested that the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill should be revised to facilitate effective action against the higher judiciary while the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) should be strengthened to probe junior officials.

The whistleblowers’ protection bill too should be revised to deal with the increasing attacks and threats against RTI activists, she suggested.

"The Lokpal bill should not become an issue of adamant stances, political rivalries and personality-driven agitations. What we need is a sincere, detailed debate for legislation of immense social significance and public concern," she said.

Roy, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from 1968 to 1974, resigned from the government as the clouds of Emergency were gathering. …

Roy’s campaign for right to information led to the enactment of the RTI Act – in Rajasthan in 2000 and five years later at the national level.

I completely agree with Aruna Roy that the parliamentary standing committee must be respected. The fact that at some other time bills were passed without much of a debate does not mean that the same should be done here. The Lokpal set up, at least as described in the Jan Lokpal bill is like another branch of democracy and proper discussions must happen at all levels before a bill on this is passed.

Now some quotes from a Business Standard article.

Harsh Mander, another NCPRI member said: “I am worried about people on the streets, who are dreaming of a better country. How can we reduce it to just one view and one issue? Let us deepen the debate and struggle for a better India.”

He said more views should be taken into account and the best possible solution should be provided to these people.

However, Justice A P Shah was harsh in his criticism of the insistence of the Anna team on having only their version of the Bill passed. “Anna is not civil society and civil society is not Anna,” he said. He said that ombudsmen in no country is given power over judiciary and this was very dangerous.

The differences between the NCPRI and its supporters and Anna supporters on the Lok Pal Bill are just a few. But, it is what is seen as the intolerant attitude of the Anna team which has annoyed NCPRI members and supporters like Anhad to organise the press conference.

Roy added that actions of the team were tantamount to hijacking the democratic system. Democracy is for the poor and it is our responsibility to make it work. We can remove rotten parts in a system, but, we cannot throw away the system itself.

“I can sit on the streets and demand that the collector delivers, but I cant go and sit in the collector’s chair. What the Anna team wants is almost that,” she said.

… The two main differences in Anna’s Bill and Aruna Roy’s Bill are the non-inclusion of the judiciary in the latter’s version and the replacement of a single Lok Pal with a three-level structure to investigate corruption at different levels of the society.

But, it is not the differences in the Bill that is causing concern to those who differ from Anna Hazare.

Roy said, “If Anna has a right to dissent, he should also acknowledge and admit the right of other people in the country to have differences with him on the Lok Pal”.

She said it was solely because of Anna Hazare and his team that Lok Pal has today become such a big issue.

Arvind Kejriwal, member of the Anna Hazare team said it was a misunderstanding that they were holding the Parliament to ransom on the Bill. He also dismissed the differences with Aruna Roy on the Bill as very minor.

“Multiple agencies to deal with corruption would lead to confusion. When a complaint is filed, we don’t know if a higher official or a lower official is involved. So it cannot work,” said Prashant Bhushan, another memeber of Hazare’s team.

I partly agree and partly disagree with the last statement of Prashant Bhusan. In case of RTI also one may not know which office to file the RTI. But ultimately it can trickle down from a top office to a lower office. The same can happen with respect to corruption complaints. However, a proper procedure should be laid out when it is clear that "corruption" has happened but is not clear at what level.

Finally, check out the articles and comments in the following:

• http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2376421.ece, especially its comments section has multitudes of views on this topic.
• http://www.business-standard.com/taketwo/news/willanna-wave-last/446294/ lists many who oppose Anna team’s approach and the Jan Lokpal bill and explains why.

The site http://www.prajnya.in/lokpaldebate.htm has a lot of pointers on all these. Following are links from that site.

• Government’s Lokpal bill: The PRS India website has the best collection of drafts and background resources relating to the Lokpal Bill.
• Jan Lokpal Bill:  Draft Bill, June 21, 2011 version.Other resources from the India Against Corruption site are available here, including "Salient features of the Jan Lokpal Bill."
• The Lokpal – NCPRI approach: Letter from Aruna Roy, MKSS; Scope and Coverage—Lokpal Basket of Measures ; (links to ppt converted) (PDF version here);  Collective and Concurrent Lokpal  Anti-Corruption and Grievance  Redress Measures, 3 July 2011  (PDF version); NCPRI Press Release, Aug 16, 2011; About the NCPRI
   

Again, the site http://www.prajnya.in/lokpaldebate.htm has a lot of pointers.

My appeal to people is to read all three and think for themselves rather than blindly following someone.

As I mention in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/5193, I support the bigger goals of the Jan Lokpal movement, which I will call the "True Democracy movement". However, in the following I give some comments and ask some questions to the statement "Beware of the Government Lokpal Bill" by Arvind Kejriwal. I got his statement from  http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150744895270714.

Beware of the Government Lokpal Bill

My dear friend,

I reviewed the Government.s Lokpal bill in great detail. I am deeply concerned and not to mention alarmed with what I learned from it. Government has completely ignored the wishes of the common man and made a mockery of our hard fought struggle for strong anti-corruption laws. I have summarized the most troubling aspects of the government version here and suggested possible steps that everyone of you can take to help in this movement.

We had been demanding that an institution called Lokpal should be set up for central government and a Lokayukta should be set up for each state government through the same Bill. Lokpal would receive and investigate corruption complaints against central government employees and politicians. Lokayukta would do that job in respective states. However, the Cabinet has rejected our demand. Only a few senior-most officers in central government have been brought within the jurisdiction of Lokpal. All officials and politicians in state governments have been left out.

What does that mean?

• It means that rampant corruption in Panchayat works would continue as it is. Through the use of RTI Act, many people across the country have revealed how payments are routinely made for ghost works. Check dams exist only on paper. List of beneficiaries of various government schemes contain bogus names. Wages of poorest people are denied and siphoned off under NREGA. Social audits in several states have exposed corruption running into thousands of crores in NREGA. Medicines are routinely diverted to black market from government hospitals. Teachers do not turn up in government schools. They pay a part of their salaries to Basic Shiksha Adhikari to mark their attendance. 80% of Rs 30,000 crores of ration subsidy is siphoned off. People living below poverty line are turned away by ration shopkeepers because their rations are diverted to black market. Much of this money reaches the party coffers or the senior-most politicians. All this will continue even after the enactment of government.s Lokpal Bill because all of this is outside its jurisdiction.

• In cities, roads would continue to break after a few months of being constructed. Flyovers would continue to collapse. Streetlights will still not light up. Parks would continue to remain dilapidated. The builders would continue to fleece ordinary consumers. You would still need to pay bribes to get your passport or income tax refund. Building plan will not be passed without a bribe. Government.s Lokpal Bill does not cover any of this.

• Adarsh Housing scam is not covered under Government’s Lokpal. Reddy brothers will continue to loot our mines and minerals. Commonwealth Games, Fodder scam, Taj Corridor Scam, Yamuna Expressway scam, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha scam, Cash for vote scam. none of these scams are covered under Government’s Lokpal Bill.

• Members of Parliament and MLAs would continue to take bribes to ask questions or vote in Parliament and legislative assemblies because Lokpal would not have the powers to investigate them.

• Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, MPs, MLAs, municipal councilors, sarpanches, judges, all state government employees, all Group B, Group C and group D employees of the central government. all are out of the jurisdiction of Government’s Lokpal Bill.

• Interestingly, if any citizen makes a complaint of corruption against any official to Lokpal and if it lacks adequate evidence, then as per government’s bill, the citizen would face two years of minimum imprisonment. And the government would provide a free advocate to the corrupt official to file a case against the citizen. But if the citizen is able to prove that the official has indeed indulged in corruption, there is just six months of minimum imprisonment. Therefore, rather than the corrupt and corruption, the government bill is targeted against those who dare raise their voice against corruption. In short, it discourages people from reporting acts of corruption!

Question: I partly agree with the above point. But there should be a mechanism to discourage people from filing frivolous charges.

• 13 people, who had dared to raise their voice against corruption, were murdered in the last one year. We had demanded that Lokpal should have the powers and duty to provide protection to such people. Government Bill does not have any such provision.

Comment: Lokpal bill or not, the government has the duty to protect all people.  With millions of complaints that is expected be made, it is not feasible to ask that the government provide special protection to all of them. May be there can be a mechanism to provide protection on a case by case basis.

• Government has retained its control over CBI. So, CBI would continue to avoid taking action against a future Raja until Supreme Court admonished them. Accounts of Quattrochis would continue to be defrozen in secrecy against national interests. CBI would continue to be used to arm twist Mayawatis, Laloo Yadavs, Jayalalithas and Mulayam Singhs into submission. Corruption money would continue to be siphoned off to Swiss accounts.

• Government’s Lokpal Bill is also unconstitutional. Prime Minister does not enjoy any immunity from investigations under the constitution. Exclusion of Prime Minister from Lokpal Bill is unconstitutional.

Comment: I am no constitutional lawyer; but I don’t agree with the above.

• Selection and removal of Lokpal members will be completely in the control of the government. Out of 9 member selection committee, five will be from ruling establishment, thus effectively giving powers in the hands of the government to appoint the most corrupt, pliable and politically loyal people as Lokpal members.

Comments: This should be negotiated based on various pros and cons.

• High Courts and Supreme Court would continue to take more than 20 years to dispose appeals in corruption cases because our plea to set up special benches to hear such appeals has also been turned down.

Government says that there are 1.25 crore government employees in the country. Government refuses to bring them under Lokpal Bill because it would need large number of anti-corruption staff to keep a check on them. Isn’t that an absurd excuse? India is a huge country. Obviously, it has large number of employees. Can the government leave them unchecked and allow them to loot the people and the country? Under law, corruption is a crime, as heinous as murder or rape. If tomorrow, the incidence of murders or rapes increases as much as we have corruption now, would the government turn around and say that this country has 120 crore population and since they would need large number of policemen to check crime, they would not do it?

The country seems to be in the clutches of highly corrupt people. It has been reported that in the Cabinet Meeting, the Prime Minister, including some of his other Cabinet colleagues, kept pleading that PM be included within the Lokpal Bill. However, the corrupt within the Cabinet had the last say. The Prime Minister was rendered helpless, though one wonders the reasons for his helplessness.

What are our options? Some people feel that Anna is unreasonable. They say that an indefinite fast is a brahmastra and should be used as a last resort. Haven’t we already reached the end of the road?

Friends, I must confess that the road ahead is extremely challenging. Government is on a path to try and crush the movement at any cost. We need the active participation of every single Indian in order to fight back. If the Government.s bill becomes law we are literally gifting our country to the corrupt people to further plunder our resources.

Like I have said before its now or never.

Let every citizen in this country take one week.s off from his normal work from 16th August, the day Anna starts his indefinite fast, and take to the streets . in front of his house or at the crossings or in parks . with a tricolor in his hands shouting slogans against corruption. Let students take off from their schools and colleges. Let everyone take to streets. If this happens, we will achieve our goal within a week. Government can crush one Anna but it cannot crush 120 crore Annas. Government can impose section 144 on one jantar mantar. But it cannot impose a curfew on the whole country.

Can we count on you support to participate in one final attempt to save our country from the corrupt?

Arvind Kejriwal

 

The above two videos give me some understanding of the goal of this movement. While I have still not educated myself on the issue of the need of a Lokpal, let alone on which of the two bills (the govt Lokpal bill and the Jan Lokpal bill) is better in which points, I think there is a need to reform the political system in India.

I almost agree with Prashant Bhushan when he says that in the current system people mostly vote for parties. I will modify it slightly and say:  in the current system people mostly vote for the parties and party icons. What this means is Sonia Gandhi or L. K. Advani or Naveen Patnaik decides who will be their party candidate some random place in Odisha.

I think if this movement grows further and is able to achieve some kind of a primary election system to decide on candidates from various parties in various seats then that would significantly improve the political system in India. If that happens, no longer Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi or L. K. Advani or Naveen Patnaik would be able to dictate their party candidates. That will allow more grassroots participation of democracy and tainted and/or corrupt people running for office will have a higher chance of getting eliminated before the final election. It will also reduce the stupid system that is being followed where by sons and daughters of politicians are automatically given huge advantages, and not only in terms of party tickets but even in terms of ministrial positions. (For example, the current ministers Jyotiraj Sindhia, Agatha Sangma, Kumari Selja, etc. come to mind.)

In addition the anti-defection amendment needs to be modified so that MPs can vote on bills based on their conscience and not just follow the diktat of the party bosses.

Perhaps the above two can be done through a "True Democracy Bill" or "People’s democracy Bill" that the Anna team will go after after the Lokpal bill is settled.

Coming back to the Lokpal bill, I think the timeline of 18 days is unreasonable. For such an important bill there should be more discussions and states need to be asked for their opinion. However, it should not be indefinitely delayed.

Following is from http://www.idco.in/2009/Aluminium_Park_IEOI_Document%2026.07.11.pdf.

EOI SUBMISSION – DATE AND TIME 7.1. The Interested Parties should submit their EOIs, in the form & manner mentioned under Clause 4 hereinabove and seal it in an outer envelope and mark the envelope as “ EOI for Participating in the proposed Aluminium Park at Angul” on or before 17: 00 hours (IST) on September 20, 2011.

SITE DETAILS

1. The site of around 450 (four hundred and fifty) acres is located adjacent to the NALCO smelter plant in Banarpal Block of Angul District south of NH 42 and for the purpose of clarity it is delineated with red boundary line in the map under clause 2 herein below (the ‘Site’).

2. The Site is undulating in nature with no apparent physical encroachments and utility lines.

INFRASTRUCTURE LINKAGES

1. Approach Road: There is an access to the site from NH 42 through a single lane carriageway through Kulad village having a length of around 2.50 km. In addition, the Site is also connected by a single lane road of length 6.4 km from NH 42 running along the periphery of the NALCO smelter unit. An alternate dedicated approach road to the site from NH 42 is being planned by IDCO. In addition, the proposed Aluminium Park shall be having a connecting link road from the proposed Angul Bypass Road.

2. Rail: There exists a single track rail siding of NALCO which runs along the edge of the site till Budhapanka Railway Station with a length of about 14 km.

3. Water: Major perennial source of water for the site is river Brahmani to the north of the site on the other side of NH 42 at a distance of about 15 KM. To the extent possible, technologies and processes to be implemented by the prospective unit holders within the proposed park should aim at maximizing recirculation and reuse of water as major demand of water for envisaged processes is expected to be for cooling requirements. This would ensure in optimizing water requirements for the park on a sustainable basis.

4. Power: One of the major substations of the State is located at Meramandali (400/220/132/33 KV) which shall be approximately 7 Km from the Site. National Grid located at Chainpal near Talcher Thermal Power Station is also a likely source. Power shall be a key parameter for the Project and steps would be taken to consider sustainability.

PROJECT CONCEPT

1. Primarily, the idea is to promote aluminium based downstream and ancillary units in Orissa and to capitalize upon the inherent location based advantage for the Site. The current practice for the NALCO smelter unit is to extract aluminium having purity of about 99.97% through an electrolytic process in potlines at a temperature of around 10000c in molten form and then to utilize the same in casting standard billets, ingots, plates, wire rods, sheets etc. Aluminium in solid form as mentioned above is procured by downstream industries and utilized for different end products. Due to proximity of the Site with respect to the smelter unit, the molten metal directly may be procured by interested downstream industrial units within the proposed park and then utilized to form different end products as desired. Even considering issues like chances of oxidation, dross formation or heat loss during the transfer process for molten aluminium, advantages for prospective unit holders within the park using aluminium in molten form rather than the conventionally used solid form include:
• Savings in terms of energy costs for the downstream industrial units
• Reduction in terms of adverse environmental impact due to reduction in energy
requirement for the process and transportation needs • Better quality of the metal in terms of lesser chemical impurities
• Efficient management of inventory with minimized requirement of stock for unit holders

2. Under the Project, the Aluminium Park is being proposed to be developed as a state-ofthe- art industrial park for entrepreneurs in related business who shall set up new units within the park and utilize the molten metal as mentioned above. The existing customers of NALCO who currently buy the metal in conventionally available solid form and utilize it for various end products at locations away from the smelter unit in Angul may also relocate their plants/set up new units in the proposed Aluminium Park.

3. In addition, ancillary units may also set up units within the proposed Aluminium Park. There would be a mutually benefitting relationship between such units and NALCO.

4. The Aluminium Park would be so developed so as to fulfill comprehensively the functional requirements in terms of common facilities, physical and social infrastructure amidst a green environment. The suggested components that may come up within the the Aluminium Park include:
• Industrial Sheds / Plots
• Warehouses/Storage Facilities
• Common Facility Centers
• Material recycling and handling facilities
• Skill development centers and ITIs
• Landscaped (green) areas, Buffer Zones
• Truck Terminal and Parking facilities

5. The envisaged support infrastructure facilities for the Project to include:
• Reserved green space
• A systematic network of internal roads
• Regular supply of quality water with adequate storage facilities
• Reliable power supply to ensure maximization of production levels on a sustainable basis including renewable energy sources
• Promoting the use of solar energy to the extent possible
• Underground utility lines
• Fire fighting system for the Park
• Adequate parking space for trucks/others
• Common effluent treatment and solid waste disposal and management facilities including for hazardous and non hazardous wastes
• Sturdy storm water and Sewerage networks, Sewage Treatment Plant
• Common Rail Siding
• Banks / ATMs / STD – PCOs
• Public and Semi public facilities including Emergency Health Services, Crèche, Public Health Centers etc.
• Efficient and professional service-oriented Operations & Maintenance system
• Dedicated access controlled road corridor from NALCO smelter unit for carriage of molten aluminium

6. For the downstream industrial units, molten aluminium may be arranged to be supplied through a dedicated road corridor from the NALCO smelter unit with appropriate safety measures. Units may make payments individually to NALCO for the molten metal being used and a suitable pricing mechanism for molten metal shall be established by NALCO for the park including provisions for revision.

7. The suggested indicative products for the proposed Aluminum Park would include:

Downstream Industries of Aluminium
• Conductors
• Extrusions
• Castings
• Foil
• Others including powder

Ancillary Industries
• Raw materials like caustic soda, coal tar pitch, alum etc.
• Dross recovery unit
• Mechanical Items: Chisel Poker, LDPE sheets, Ingot skimming tool, etc
• Instrumentation Electronic Items: Alarm card, Pressure Switch, T/C sockets, photocell etc
• Refractory Items- like LCC lid cover, flue wall bricks etc.
• Miscellaneous Items- Hand gloves, casting wheel nozzle, cotton dust mask etc.

8. Products to be considered for commercial production within the proposed Park shall be decided based on mutual consent of the prospective Entrepreneurs/Manufacturers and AAPPL –the project SPV taking into account current and planned production facilities and commercial plans of the existing NALCO Smelter Unit adjacent to the proposed project site.

9 The aspect of current pollution level at the Angul Talcher Area shall be critically considered while assessing investment proposals and arriving at the final Project contours

Update: The San Jose Mercury News has a long article on this and talks about how it happened and what the future plans are. I hope other expatriate Odia groups in different parts of the world will make similar efforts.

Following is an excerpt from a report in a Cupertino news paper.

Reflective of Cupertino’s growing Indian population, the city is getting a new sister city in Bhubaneswar, India, thanks to a major push by citizens, Rotary Clubs on two continents, and the blessing of the City Council on Tuesday night. The Bhubaneswar Sister City Initiative, a committee of local citizens, told the council that residents from both cities are anxious to establish a connection. Committee member Mahesh Pakala said Bhubaneswar is “considered the cleanest and greenest city in India,” and like Cupertino is home to high tech companies and has a strong interest in education. Mayor Gilbert Wong visited Bhubaneswar, a 2,000-year-old city on the north east coast of India that serves as the capital of the state of Orissa, earlier this year. Bhubaneswar will be the fourth sister city for Cupertino. Two active committees promote relationships with Toyokawa, Japan, and Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China; the city has a less active relationship with Copertino, Italy.

The official web site of Cupertino, CA is http://www.cupertino.org/. Cupertino’s wikipedia page is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupertino,_California. Following is an excerpt from its wikipedia page.

Cupertino is one of many cities that claim to be the "heart" of Silicon Valley, as many semi-conductor and computer companies were founded here and in the surrounding areas. The worldwide headquarters for Apple Inc. is also located here in a modern complex circled by the playfully named Infinite Loop. Apple has also announced that it plans to build a new 150-acre (610,000 m²) second campus between Interstate 280, N Wolfe Rd, E Homestead Rd and along Tantau Ave one mile east of the old campus. The different (nine) properties (50-acre (0.2 km²) south of Pruneridge Avenue were bought in 2006, the property (100-acre (0.4 km²) north of it in 2010 (from Hewlett-Packard).

As per the wikipedia page, as of today, three of its top five employers are: Apple (34,300 employees in the area), Oracle (8,000 employees in the area) and HP (3,000 employees).

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The Centre has cleared Tisco’s proposal for establishment of a multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) at Gopalpur, Orissa steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty told the Assembly today.

… Mohanty said the civil construction work for the project was currently in progress at the proposed site. The work for the boundary wall and road project has already begun.

At the proposed SEZ site, Tisco will set up an industrial park. The company will invest Rs 1,000 crore in the park and set up a 4-lakh tonne per annum steel rebar mill, a 55,000 tonne ferro chrome plant and a 1.2-million gallon per day water desalination plant.

For the infrastructure development, Rs 5,000 crore will be invested. Once the park is developed, Rs 15,000 crore will be invested for the development of downstream industries. Mohanty said: “The park will invite investment in steel, accessories of motor vehicles, apparel, gems, jewellery, speciality chemicals and other technical areas.”

Joda and Barbil are twin towns in Keonjhar district of Odisha; they are 8-10 kms apart. These towns are surrounded by many mines and also have many industries. With the recent extension of the train from Puri to Bansapani, which is near Joda, the twin towns now have daily trains both to/from Cuttack/Bhubaneswar/Puri as well as to/from Jamshedpur (a passenger and a Jan shatabdi) and Howrah (the Jan Shatabdi). There is also a fast passenger connecting Keonjhar to Bhubaneswar.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu.

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has found Platinum Group of Elements (PGE) in the Baula-Nuasahi ultramafic complex in Orissa.

“We, in collaboration with the Orissa Mining Corporation [OMC], are studying the feasibility of mining of PGE in the area. There are some encouraging signs,” said GSI Director-General A. Sundaramoorthy.

… The PGE comprises a family of six greyish to silver white metals — platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium, osmium and ruthenium. They have attracted enormous interest from explorers all over the world due to their rarity, high economic value, growing demand in jewellery, pharmaceutical, telecommunication and hi-tech application in fuel cell technology.

“The Baula-Nuasahi ultramafic complex is the only proven PGE deposit in the country with an estimated resource of 14.2 million tonnes. This is confined to the active chromite mines,” GSI sources said.

The GSI started its collaboration with the OMC in 2010. After one year of study, scientists are elated about the prospects of development of this mineral.

Sitampundi in Tamil Nadu is another place where the GSI has got proof of PGE presence. …

Following is from a paper by GSI titled "Platinum in Baula – Nuasahi Ultramafic Complex."

Baula‐Nuasahi ultramafic complex (Lat. 210 15’ – 21020’: Long 860 18”‐860 20’) in Kendujhar district, Orissa is a NW‐SE trending , ~3 km long arcuate belt occurring ~170 km northeast of Bhubaneswar (Fig.1). It comprises of variants of ultramafic suite including orthopyroxenite, dunite, chromitite, peridotite, websterite and harzburgite hosted within gabbro and shows steep easterly dip. The mafic‐ultramafic sequence is intrusive to the supracrustals (Badampahar‐Gorumahishani Belt) of the Archaean Singhbhum craton. The supracrustals named here as Hadgarh Group comprises mainly a clastic dominated sequence with minor basic volcanics, volcaniclastics and semiplelite and occur as an arcuate belt within the granitemigmatite milieu (Singhbhum Granite).

Within the Baula ultramafic complex, the interface between the ultramafic and the mafic unit (gabbro) in its eastern border, is marked by a prominent magmatic breccia zone ranging in width between 1 m to 40m and with a strike length of >2 km. Although incidence of platinumgroup elements (PGE) in the belt was recorded by Banerjee (1966), Roy (1970) and Chakraborty (1972), PGE rich zones containing >1 ppm (Pt+Pd) was reported by the AMSE wing of the Geological Survey of India (Thiagarajan et al. 1989). Subsequently the mineralized units confined to the brecciated Ganga‐Shankar chromite lode were identified (Nanda et al. 1996, Patra & Mukherjee 1996). A collaborative programme undertaken by BRGM, France and Geological Survey of India (1996‐99) confirmed the PGE potential of the Baula sector (Augé et al. 1999). Two types of mineralization, viz. magmatic and hydrothermal origin, both linked to the intrusion of a gabbro into the ultramafic complex are reported. Detailed exploration for PGE established a possible resource of 7.7 million tones Pt+Pd ore with average content of 1.5 g/t at 0.5g/t cut off.

Following is an excerpt from a report  Akshay Rout in Pioneer.

To attract more tourists to Langudi, Kaima, Neulipur, Tarapur and other hills in Jajpur district, the State Government would spend Rs 14 crore in four years, said Secretary of Tourism and Culture Department Ashok Tripathy while he, along with other senior officials, visited these Buddhist sites on Saturday.

For an archeological hotspot, Langudi wears the tag of obscurity well. Located in Dharmasala tehsil, it is a sleepy hamlet with a sparse population. But things could change, thanks to the discovery of a Buddhist Stupa along with many images of different postures of Lord Buddha. Langudi hit the headlines eight years ago when several senior historians and archaeologists considered it as the Puspagiri, as described the famous Chinese traveller Huein Tsang. However, few tourists have since ventured into this remote hamlet for a view of the artifacts. But the government would spend money to develop the Buddhist site, said Tripathy.

Targeting Buddhist tourism in Jajpur, the Government is going to launch a Buddhist Circuit involving primary pilgrimage places associated with the life and teachings of Lord Buddha. Lalitagiri, Ratnagiri, Udayagiri, Langudi, Kaima and Neulipur are the primary pilgrimage places along with numerous other sites, where Buddha and the saints travelled, would be parts of the tourist itinerary, Tripathy said.

… The Government would build a 150-feet-high Buddha statute at Neulapur hill and a 85-feet Buddha statute at Deuli hill. A 50-feet-high Shiva statute would be built in the Gokarneswat temple. A 500-meter-long ropeway would be connected from Deuli hill to Kaima hill, he added.

Update: See http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110714/jsp/orissa/story_14234760.jsp for a recent news on the CDP for Sambalpur. Thanks to Jitu for the pointer.

Following is from Samaja.

Related past postings:

• Cuttack Development Plan links – draft proposal 2030
• Bhubaneswar CDP.
• Population of Bhubaneswar – Cuttack urban complex is 1.9 million in 2008.

The website of this league is http://www.efli.com/. This league is backed by some big names in American Football. Following is an excerpt from the page http://www.efli.com/news/american-football-is-coming-to-india/.

The Elite Football League of India plans to kick off in the fall of 2012, and Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal reports that its backers include some familiar names to American fans, such as Ron Jaworski, Mike Ditka and Packers linebacker Brandon Chillar (pictured), who is of Indian descent.

Following is an excerpt from the page http://www.efli.com/news/cowboys-in-india-jaworski-helps-launch-new-football-league/.

Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, and current ESPN football analyst, Ron Jaworski is an investor and consultant for a new football league being started in India, according to a report in our sister publication Sports Business Journal.

… Other investors in the proposed eight-team league, which would begin play in November 2012, include Michael Irvin and Mike Ditka, who are both in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The eight teams in this league and the tentative week 1 schedule in 2012 is:

This is a big deal for Bhubaneswar and if indeed things go as planned Bhubaneswar will get a lot of publicity in the USA.

The logo of the Bhubaneswar Warhawks is a nice one. See below.

I was wondering how come Bhubaneswar is one of the eight teams. Its probably because they will try to get some of the rugby players to play American Football and the KISS Bhubaneswar rugby team has won several international championships in recent years. Following are some pointers.

• 2011 under 13 International Rugby tournament Champion.
• 2010 under 16 Rugby Championship held in Bhubaneswar. (See also this report)
  • KISS team has won this three times in a row.
• 2007 under 14 international cup winner.

Following is from http://ppporissa.gov.in/web%20site/Housing%20&%20Urban%20Development_files/frame.htm.

• H&UD Deptt. / BDA
• Location: Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar
• Area: @ 10.74 Acres
• M/s. UNITECH Ltd. has been selected as the developer.
• This would be the largest Commercial complex in the Eastern region with international standards
• Project Investment of USD 150 Million with an unprecedented Final Winning Bid of USD 47 Million
• 10.8 lakh Sft. Commercial space will be created.

The following is from http://unitechgroup.com/retail/comingsoon.asp.

The exact location is next to the current NISER hostel.

Following is from a report in Pioneer.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday laid the foundation-stone of the second-phase expansion of the Global Software Development Centre of TCS here at Kalinga Park Phase II.  …. The State Government, along with the Central Government, is setting up of an IT investment region in the State where IT and electronics hardware industry is an important component, he informed.

Patnaik said that to achieve the objective, industry-friendly ICT Policy-2011, IT Roadmap, Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Policy and IT Hardware Policy are being prepared to attract more IT industries to the State. The State’s IT export has crossed Rs 13,000 million during the year 2010-11 with direct employment of more than 10,000 persons.

… TCS Vice-President Projects B Sharma said that the second phase expansion is expected to be completed by March 2012, which would add 3,500 seats to the operation here. After the planned third phase, the total number of seats would be 11,000. The capital expenditure on different phases of expansion is estimated to be Rs 500 crore.

The following is obtained from http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/paper2/prov_results_paper2_ori.html.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Though there are 12 potential port locations on the coast-line, the State Government is not in a hurry to develop these ports. It would take appropriate decisions for development of the proposed ports in Public-Private-Participation mode only after preparation of the feasibility report.

… According to official sources, apart from the ongoing ports – Dhamara and Gopalpur – there are at least 12 potential port locations on the coast line. They are Bahuda Muhan in Ganjam, Baliharchandi, Astaranga, Jatadhari Muhan, Barunei Muhan, Chudamani, Incudi, Chandipur, Bahabalpur, Subarnarekha Mouth (Kirtania) and Bichitrapur.

While the decision to develop Chudamani and Astaranga ports has already been taken, land acquisition for development of the Subarnarekha port was under consideration of the Board of Revenue. Environment and other related clearances of this proposed port are in the final stage.

Of other proposed nine ports, it was decided to prepare feasibility report in each case before entering into any deal with private investors for developing them on BOOST, though a number of private promoters have evinced interest, the sources said.

The sources said that the Dhamara Port has already been completed at an estimated investment of Rs 3,239 crore and the railway line is already operational. …

On Gopalpur Port being operated by private developer Gopalpur Ports Limited, the sources said the completion of the all-weather port would be done at an estimated cost of Rs 1212.55 crore. It was decided to set up a fishing jetty at Gopalpur and to provide ID cards to 5,000 fishermen.

With the completion of Gopalpur port, as many as 4,888 direct and 1,000 indirect employments potential would be created, the sources said.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.

New infrastructure projects in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Orissa are set to get a major push in the five years starting 2012 as various government agencies will be prioritising building of roads, rail networks, airports and sea ports in these states that are setting up mega petroleum and petrochemical investment regions.

Five massive regions meant to attract investments in the petrochemical and allied sectors are now at various stages of implementation at Dahej in Gujarat, Visakhapatnam-Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, Haldia in West Bengal, Paradeep in Orissa and Cuddalore and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. These investment zones, each of which is not less than 250 square kilometres, are expected to attract a collective investment of R8,63,664 crore and create more than 40 lakh jobs during the 12th Five-Year Plan.

… “We will get infrastructure build for these projects using various existing schemes through appropriate prioritization,” K Jose Cyriac, department of chemicals and petrochemicals secretary, said. Government entities like the National Highways Authority of India, shipping ministry and the railways ministry would emphasise on fresh projects in these regions while allocating resources in the coming years. In the case of small connecting roads wherever required, the state governments concerned would include them in their own development plans.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Petronet LNG Ltd, one of the fastest growing companies in the Indian energy sector has evinced interest in setting up an LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) terminal along the Orissa coast.

Dhamara, Gopalpur and Paradip ports in the state have been identified as the possible locations for the proposed LNG terminal which is set to cost Rs 4,000-5,000 crore.

“Petronet LNG is keen to set up an LNG terminal along the Orissa coast. The company is yet to zero in on any site though Dhamara, Gopalpur and Paradip have emerged as the potential locations. Petronet LNG has told us that the Orissa coast is the most suitable location for setting up the LNG terminal in which Rs 4,000-5,000 crore will be invested,” T Ramachandru, principal secretary (industries), Orissa government told Business Standard.

Petronet LNG is understood to be in talks with Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) authorities as well as promoters of Dhamara Ports Company Ltd (DPCL) and Gopalpur Ports Ltd (GPL) for the project. “We had initial discussions with the officials of Petronet LNG. They have proposed to set up an LNG terminal along the Orissa coast and we are open to the idea of setting up the terminal at Gopalpur. Petronet LNG officials have talked to PPT authorities as well as DPCL,” said Charchit Mishra, director of GPL.

… Petronet runs India’s first LNG receiving and re-gasification terminal at Dahej (Gujarat) having a capacity of 10 million tonne per annum (mtpa), equivalent to 40 mscmd (million standard cubic metres per day) of natural gas. The company is in the process of building another terminal at Kochi (Kerala) which will have a capacity of five mtpa equivalent to 20 mscmd.

Following is from the "About Us" page of Petronet.

Formed as a Joint Venture by the Government of India to import LNG and set up LNG terminals in the country, it involves India’s leading oil and natural gas industry players. Our promoters are GAIL (India) Limited (GAIL), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL).

The following map gives an idea that the location picked and being considered by Petronet is not going to be a one-off thing. From the shape of India it becomes clear that many companies who will be importing "things" and distributing them across India would think of three ports: one in the West, one in the South and one in the East. In the East, since Odisha has a much longer coast line than West Bengal, there is a rush to establish ports in Odisha. These ports are going to be a big factor in the development of Odisha. Because of that Odisha is and should be zealously protecting the welfare of its existing and planned ports.

As per the article below the six most backward districts of Odisha are: Gajapati, Kandhamal, Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.

See our earlier posting at http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/5102 for various data about these districts. In particular the ST% of these six districts are as follows:

• Gajapati: 47.88%
• Koraput: 50.67%
• Malkangiri: 58.36%
• Nawarangpur: 55.27%
• Phulbani (Kandhamala): 51.51%
• Rayagada: 56.04%

The ST% of the other districts which we earlier identified as backward are:

• Bolangir: 22.06%
• Boudh: 12.92%
• Kalahandi: 28.88%
• Keonjhar: 44.52%
• Mayurbhanj: 57.87%
• Nuapada: 35.95%

One other point to note is Sundergarh has 50.74% tribal population. Yet it is not a backward state. The reason is "Rourkela". I hope the people who blindly oppose industries in the backward districts would take note of this fact.