Category Archives: News
Narasingh Accuses Minister of Role in Abduction Case
The Opposition Congress on Monday brought abduction charges against Minister of State for Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts Snehangini Chhuria in the Assembly.
Raising the issue through a special mention during zero hour, Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra alleged that Chhuria had abducted an elderly person of the rival political party from Hatgaon village under Bheden police station of Bargarh district before the election to Rusuda Credit Cooperative Society on 18th January.
Though the son of the abducted person filed an FIR on 25th January in Rusuda police outpost, the same was registered on 29th January. Despite the Minister’s name being mentioned in the FIR, the police dropped her name from the case under pressure from the ruling party, Mishra said.
But the minister denied the allegations, “saying they are baseless and politically motivated”. “I am ready for the inquiry, after all the truth will come out after the inquiry”.
In the police complaint, Durga Ranbida (son of Sugriba Ranbida) said his father was forcibly taken by three supporters of the Minister to prevent him from exercising his franchise in the election to Rusuda Cooperative Society.
Durga filed the complaint on 25th January as his father did not return home even after eight days.
In a separate complaint to the District Superintendent of Police, Bargarh, Sugriba said he was taken to the Bargarh residence of the Minister and later shifted to her official quarter in Bhubaneswar.
On the voting day, Sugriba requested the minister to let him go to cast his vote. Though the minister assured him that he will be taken with her, she went to Kalahandi after taking his sign on blank papers, the complaint stated. Sugriba was allowed to go to his village on 26th January after the voting was over.
Apprehending danger to his life, Sugriba requested the SP to give him protection, mishra said and demanded action against the police officers for the deliberate delay in registering the complaint and not taking action against the minister.
Mishra requested Speaker Niranjan Pujari to direct Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is also in charge of the Home department, to give a reply to the House on the incident.
Oils Mafias in Sambalpur
The black marketing of oils in Sambalpur city is known to every one in the city. City police today arrested four persons in connection with the theft of a diesel tanker and selling the fuel worth Rs 11 lakh.
The accused were identified as Kishore Modi, 55, his son, Abinash, 28, Satyanarayana Beriha, 35, and Bantu alias Amit Agrawal, 32. Kishore and his son Abinash are owners of a petrol pump at Remed in the city.
Police have seized six mobile phones, Rs 40,000 in cash and 20,000 litres of diesel from their possession.
“The owner of the tanker, Budhu Yadav of Bishrampur in Surajpur district of neighbouring Chhattisgarh had lodged a complaint at the Ainthapali police station regarding the theft of the vehicle on January 19,” said additional superintendent of police S.K. Panigrahi.
The tanker, which was loaded with 20,000 litres of diesel, set out from Paradip on January 14. It was supposed to go to Bishrampur. The owner of the tanker was in regular contact with the driver and the cleaner of the vehicle. However, he failed to make any contact with them on January 15, which led him to suspect that his tanker had actually been stolen.
Since the tanker was GPS enabled, Yadav traced the last location of the tanker to Remed.
During investigation, police found that the 20,000 litres of diesel were sold at a petrol pump owned by Kishore Modi. “We are yet to trace the driver and the cleaner of the tanker. However, we have succeeded in tracing the tanker, which is parked at Visakhapatnam,” said Panigrahi.
Sambalpur’s 2nd KV to Come up at Burla
The second Kendriya Vidyalaya in Sambalpur city will be set up at Burla instead of the earlier site near railway station.
Sambalpur Collector Balwant Singh said the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) has approved a second school in Sambalpur City and if things go smoothly, admission would start from next academic session.
Informing that 10 acres of land near Burla NAC College have been identified for the school, Singh said it will be handed over to the Sangathan after Water Resources Department, to which the land belongs, transfers the ownership.
Meanwhile, the district administration is planning to provide temporary arrangement at Hindi High School here and the KV will be shifted to Burla after construction of the building at the new location, Singh said.
Earlier, the district administration had identified 10 acres of land near Sambalpur City railway station and a KVS delegation had given its approval for the location. Even the old TRW School building at Jamadarpali on the outskirts of the City was finalised to operate the school temporarily. Subsequently, the Sangathan finalised the new location at Burla.
The second Kendriya Vidyalaya which was to begin operation from 2012-2013 academic session got delayed due to lack of coordination among the district officials and school authorities.
Cabinet Approval for Open University at Sambalpur
The first Open University of the State will be set up at Sambalpur. This was decided at the meeting of the State Cabinet presided by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here on Saturday.
The Cabinet accorded post facto approval for change of headquarters of the Open University from Bhubaneswar to Sambalpur, Chief Secretary GC Pati told mediapersons after the meeting.
Several other important decisions including handing over of e-auction of liquor shops to Metal Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC), a Central public sector undertaking (PSU) was taken. e-auction system will be introduced for 2015-16 to bring transparency in the system of settlement of IMFL off shops and CS shops, Pati said.
The Chief Secretary said MSTC was preferred over National Informatics Centre (NIC) as the former has expertise in e-auction services. The MSTC’s e-auction platform is much superior to the existing platform of NIC, he said.
Modalities for introduction of the liquor shops will be started in 2014-15 for the financial year 2015-16.
A corpus fund of Rs 100 crore will be created for supply of seeds and planting materials to the farmers in time and increase the seed replacement rate of various agricultural crops. Interest free loan from the corpus fund will be shared by Odisha State Seeds Corporation Limited (OSSC), Odisha Agro Industries Corporation Limited (OAIC) and Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation Limited (OSCDC) on 60:30:10 basis for supply of seeds.
Another corpus of fund of Rs 100 crore to be shared by Markfed and OAIC on a 75:25 basis will be created for supply of fertilisers to the farmers in a timely manner, Pati said.
Pati said the Cabinet approved to award the Upper Indravati Canal Irrigation project to Larsen and Toubro Limited which was the L-1 bidder at a cost of Rs 758.8 crore.
The project will irrigate 26,248 hectares in Koksara, Jaypatna and Dharamgarh blocks of Kalahandi district.
Besides, the mega lift cluster-III project was also decided to be awarded to Larsen and Toubro Limited, which was the lowest bidder, at a cost of Rs 514.89 crore.
The project covers 19 mega lift points with a command area of 24,200 hectares in Bargarh, Sambalpur and Jharsuguda districts. Four bidders Larsen and Toubro Limited, GVPR Engineers Limited, HCC Limited and Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited participated in the tender process.
The Cabinet also decided to strengthen the command area development (CAD) wing of the Water Resources Department by increasing the technical staff from 299 to 411. A chief engineer will head the CAD in which the divisions will be increased from seven to 12.
The Chief Secretary said Cabinet approved the proposal to convert the interest liability of Rs 32.7 crore payable by OAIC to share capital to facilitate the restructuring of the corporation. OAIC will now have the credit worthiness to have access to adequate borrowings from banks and financial institutions at lower rate of interest.
The IPR-2007 will be amended to redefine downstream industries.
The Chief Secretary said that there should be 50 per cent use of waste/intermediate/final product as base material from the parent industry for a unit to be categorised under downstream industry.
Solar light installation in Deer Park, Sambalpur
In a effort to ensure safety of birds and animals, the Wild Animals Conservation Centre, which is popularly known as Deer Park in Sambhalpur, will now have solar lights.
Thirty four solar lights have been installed in the Wild Animal Conservation Centre in Sambalpur, which has attained the status of a small zoo. Installation of each light cost around Rs 25,000.
“The solar lights are attached with sensor. Because of the sensor, the 25 watt LED bulbs connected to the solar panel automatically illuminate while sun sets and turn off when sun rises. A Bhubaneswar based agency has installed the solar lights. The agency has also been entrusted with the responsibility of maintenance of the lights for one year,” range officer of the Wild Animal Conservation Centre, Madan Lal Sharma, said.
“The objective behind installation of the solar light is to ensure safety of the birds and animals and to reduce consumption of electricity. We removed several electric wires from the zoo after the installation of the solar lights. Only, the official buildings, which are inside the Wild Animal Conservation Centre, are connected with electricity,” Sharma said.
Apart from the solar lights, several other Apart from the solar lights, several other developmental works have also been undertaken in the Wild Animal Conservation Centre, which has 23 enclosures for the birds and animals. Around Rs 10 lakh have been spent for the development pavement.
Moreover, cemented base have been developed for the enclosures. The wild animal conservation centre, which is located in the heart of the Sambalpur city and spread across 13.16 hectar area, was established in 1980.
The small zoo here is house to around 246 number of birds and animals of 22 species. Wildlife including spotted deer, four horned antelope, barking deer, sloth bear, wild boar, monkey, civet cat, python, peacock, parakeet, moorhen, duck, spotted dove and a number of exotic birds are there in the zoo.
The animals, birds and the beautiful surrounding always attract thousands of visitors. More than one lakh visitors had visited the zoo last year. “The installation of the solar lights is praise worthy step. It is an effort to provide safe lighting facilities in the zoo area.
Solar powered lights help avoid short circuits. Moreover, solar energy is eco- friendly. It also solve the problem of frequent blackouts,” said a visitor, Nirupama Pradhan.
Source: www.newsmobile.in
