Brown sugar worth Rs 4 crore seized in pilgrim city Puri

By Debadas Pradhan/www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, May 27: The Orissa excise department officials on Friday arrested two persons and seized four kilograms of brown sugars from them in pilgrim city Puri, nearly 65 km from here.

The price of the seized contraband in international market is estimated to be Rs 4 crore, the excise department officials claimed.

The arrested persons were identified as Shyama Das of Puri and Tarachand Haripal of Madhya Pradesh.

According to police, acting on a tip off, - a special team of excise department officials stopped an Indica car which was coming from Bhubaneswar at Atharanala, the entry point to Puri, and recovered the banned item hidden under the seats of the vehicle.

“We were keeping a close watch on the movement of the two drug-peddlers for the past few days. We were informed that they were coming to Puri today with a huge haul of brown sugar. They were caught-red-handed,” the excise department officials said.

In yet another incident in the same city, miscreants seriously injured inspector Puri Town police station B. N. Mohanty by attacking him with the butt of a country-made pistol.

“While on duty, the injured inspector Mr Mohanty saw two criminals wanted in a number of cases were moving around in the city. When He tried to stop them, they attacked him. Despite the murderous assault on him, the inspector overpowered one of the criminals while the other one managed to escape. A manhunt is on to nab him,” informed deputy inspector general of police Sanjay Kumar.

The police officer Mr Mohanty – who sustained serious cut injuries on the left part of his head - was immediately rushed to the district headquarters hospital. His condition is said to be stable and out of danger.

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BJP brings 10 serious charges against BJD

By Ratikant Mohanty/ www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, May 26: The BJP is now out to nail its erstwhile ally the BJD. The party on Thursday brought serious charges of corruption against the ruling BJD headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
In a booklet titled “Bhrastacharinka Aparadh O Durnitira Kalankita Pharda (criminal acts of the crooks and black-pages of corrupts), the party mentioned about about 10 major corruptions that took place under the present regime in the last few years. The Rs 500-crore scam in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act finds place in the chapter one while dal and mining scams have been place in second and third chapters, respectively.
The booklet was prepared by the BJP chargesheet team headed by central executive body member r Bijoy Mohapatra. The book was released by BJP state president Jual Oram in presence of central leaders like Kiriti Somaya and Santosh Gangwar.
The other chapters deal with issues like diversion of river water for industrial use, farmer suicide, “undue” favour to Vedanta and Posco, water resources department scam, misappropriation of tribal development fund, “illegal” sale of Khandadhar mines and collapse of law and order situation.
Releasing the booklet in presence of Central BJP leaders Sontosh Gangwar and Kiriti Somaya, BJP state president Jual Oram said the party would go to the public to make them aware about the “real” face of Naveen Patnaik.
“After 10 years of drama, Naveen now stands exposed. People have started to see the real face of Naveen who is neck-deep involved in corruption,” Mr Oram said.
Charge-sheet committee chairman Mr Mohapatra, while throwing lights on various corruption charges, said the BJP would soon bring more serious charges of corruption against the BJD leadership.
“The only business of the BJD has to loot money. Almost all the corruption charges that we have placed in the booklet are bigger than the 2G spectrum scam. We will expose the BJD and its leader thoroughly,” he added.
The BJD spokesperson Baishnab Charan Parida rubbished the BJP’s chargesheet saying the BJP was making “baseless” allegations for its own political survival.
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Maoist ideologue urges Orissa govt to release tribals by June 30

By Ratikant Mohanty

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Bhubaneswar, May 25: Revolutionary poet Varavara Rao on Wednesday urged he Orissa government to release “human rights activists” like Ganti Prasadam, Gananath Patra and Ashutosh Sen and nearly 600 tribal farmers currently lodged in various jails in the state by June 30 or face imminent revolt.

“We met chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday evening and told him to honour his words on dropping cases lodged against innocent tribals and release them along with human scores of tribal rights activists who have been thrown into prison cells on false charges. The chief minister assured us to initiate steps in this regard. If the government fails to act by June 30, the tribals would decide their own alternative,” Mr Rao warned.

He added that the government should expedite the legal process for early release of innocent people who have been framed as Maoist activists.

Chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik, while reacting to Mr Rao’s remarks, said the state government had already reviewed cases against tribals.

“Nine cases where 168 tribals are accused are being processed for withdrawal of prosecution. Besides, 55 other minor offences against tribals are also being considered for withdrawal.” Mr Patnaik said, adding the process was likely to be completed by end of June.

Mr Rao along with Professor G. Hargopal and Mr Dandapani Mohanty, the interlocutors who facilitated release of former Malkangiri collector R. Vineel Krishna from the Maoists in March, met the Orissa chief minister on Tuesday and held detailed discussions on the 14 conditions of the rebels the government had agreed to fulfill.

During the discussion on Tuesday, the state government informed the interlocutors that it had constituted a committee headed by chief administrator of KBK region to look into tribal land dispute and suggest means to restore tribal land, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said.

Before leaving Orissa, Mr Rao and Professor Hargopal went to Jharpara circle jail here and met “Maoist” sympathizers Gananath Patra, Motilal Soren alias Ashutosh Sen and Subhashree Panda, wife of Orissa’s top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda.

Meanwhile, the Orissa police on Wednesday seized nearly 2.5 quintals of explosives from Nayaranpatna forest in Koraput district.

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OPCC to file PIL seeking extension of CBI probe to all 30 districts

By Debadas Pradhan / www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, May 25: The Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Wednesday said it would file a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court appealing extension of the ongoing CBI probe to all the 30 districts in the state.

Addressing media persons here, OPCC working president Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra said that the misuse of the public money was not limited in six districts where the CBI probe is going on now.

“We are now collecting information from rest of the districts and after getting the facts and figure it will be produced before the apex court,” informed Mr Mohapatra.

“After getting reports from all the remaining 24 districts, we will produce them before the Supreme Court” informed Mr Mohapatra.

Criticising the recent government circular to all the district authorities allowing them to use machines Mr Mohapatra described it as a strange decision and said that it was a clear instance of government’s inability to follow MGNREGA guidelines properly.

He also alleged that the sarapanchs, panchyat samiti presidents and Zilla Parisad presidents were not even consulted while implementing the plan in their locality.

“As per the guidelines, 50 per cent of the total allocation should be utilized by the respective Panchyats but in course of our investigation it is found that the amount was spent by Panchyat samitis,” informed Mr Mohapatra adding that all these illegal data will be placed before the apex court for strengthening our part.

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RECOGNITION:

Mr Ranjan Sinha, Chief Procurement, Tata Steel, receiving Global Procurement Leaders Award 2011 at Brewery, London on May 23. Tata Steel India won this award for Corporate Social Responsibility.

(Courtesy:www.indusvalleytimes.com)

Naveen reshuffles ministry, five new minister inducted, three dropped

Debi Mishra stripped off higher education, gets forest

By Debadas Pradhan/www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, May 10: In a reshuffle exercise, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday inducted five legislators as new ministers to his Cabinet and dropped three senior ministers. One of the state ministers – Ms Anjali Behera – was also elevated to Cabinet rank.

The legislators sworn-in as new Cabinet ministers at a function held at the Raj Bhawan here are Lal Bihari Himrika, Pradip Maharathy, Maheswar Mohanty, Usha Devi and Niranjan Pujari.

Mr Himrika was given scheduled caste and scheduled tribe development portfolio while Pradip Maharathy was given agriculture. Similarly Maheswar Mohanty was entrusted panchayati raj department while Usha Devi was given women and child development portfolio. Niranjan Pujari got food and civil supplies.

Slight readjustments were made into the portfolio of a few ministers. Sarada Nayak – who was holding food and civil supplies – was given urban development while higher education was taken away from Debi Prasad Mishra. Mr Mishra got forest department.

Earlier on Monday, the chief minister had sprung a surprise by dropping three ministers from his Cabinet. They included agriculture minister Dr Damodar Rout, sports and youth affairs minister Praveen Bhanjadeo and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe development minister Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha.

Later talking to the newspersons at the Raj Bhawan, the chief minister described the induction of new ministers into the council of ministers as a “routine” affair.

In fact, the chief minister effected a reshuffle in his council of ministers after completion of two years of his office in the third term. In his second term also, the chief minister had also gone for the reshuffle after two years.

Mr Patnaik said those inducted into the Ministry were experienced party leaders and hoped that they would work hard to the satisfaction of the people of Orissa. The new ministers, he said, would be allocated portfolios soon.

Sources said the newly sworn-in ministers will be distributed portfolios later in the evening.

The state politics have warmed up following dropping of the senior leader Dr Damodar Rout.

During Naveen’s second term, Dr Rout – who was then holding panchayati raj portfolio – was also shunted out from the council of ministers after two years. The veteran leader, while reacting to his exclusion, dropped hints that he was dropped as he did not bow to pressures from some influential circles in the party forum.

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