Senior Congress leader quits party, joins Odisha Jana Morcha

By Our Correspondent

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 9: Bibhuti Mishra, a senior Congress leader, on Wednesday quit the party and joined Odisha Jana Morcha led by Pyarimohan Mohapatra, a betenoire of chief minister of Naveen Patnaik.

Mr Mishra, hailing from Athgarh in Cuttack district, said he quit the Congress as the party was caught in factional feuds and lost the direction to fight against the ruling BJD.

“I did not see any future for the Congress in Odisha as the party has got fragmented into several factions due to personal aspirations of some individuals. It has lost the strength to fight against the ruling BJD headed by Naveen Patnaik,” said Mr Mishra.

He added that Pyarimohan Mohapatra was the only leader “who has the courage to take on the BJD. 

Severe cyclonic storm looms large over Odisha, govt cancels puja holiday of employees

By Prasanna Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 9: The Odisha government on Wednesday cancelled puja holidays of its employees in 14 coast districts and ordered deployment of Disaster Rapid Force (ODRAF) in all vulnerable points as Met department forecasted a cyclone in Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast by Sunday.

“The state government has cancelled puja holidays of employees in coastal districts in view of possible cyclone. If any officials goes on holiday or remains absent office during this period, departmental action will be taken against them,” state revenue and disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patro told reporters after a high level preparedness meeting.

The minister said instructions were given revenue, food supplies, health and other related departments to remain alert to the situation.

Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), a specially raised calamity combating force, has already been deployed at different places.

Reports from Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Ganjam, Puri and Cuttack said the ODRAF team and fire personnel conducted mock drills.

The latest bulletin issued by the Met department suggested that a tropical storm brewing over the Andaman Sea would gather speed and destructive power when it crossed the Odisha-Andhra coast on Saturday.

“The wind speed of the system during the landfall will be between  175 to 185 km per hour. Fishermen have been asked not venture into sea during this period,” the bulletin said.

“The depression over the North Andaman Sea which moved northwestward with a speed of 13 km per hour during the past six hours, intensified into a deep depression and lay centred at 5.30 am today over north Andaman Sea, about 1100 km east-southeast of Paradip and 1200 km east-southeast of Visakhapatnam,” it said.

All the districts authorities have also been asked to take required steps in villages located by the sea coast.

The 14 coastal districts where maximum alert has been issued are Balasore, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh, Ganjam and Gajapati.

South Korean President to lay foundation stone for Posco project early next year

By Ratikant Mohanty // www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 7: South Korean president is likely Park Gen-hye is likely to visit Odisha early next year to lay the foundation stone for the 12-million-tonne Posco India steel project at Paradip.

This was informed by South Korean ambassador to India Joon-gyu Lee here on Monday. 

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with the chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Mr Lee said he was happy with the state government's efforts at land acquisition.

"We are happy that the state government has completed the land acquisition work. I hope the rest of the ground work will be finished soon after which our president will most likely to visit Odisha to lay the foundation for the project," he said.

Chief Minster Mr Patnaik, while stating that the project was progressing in direction, said the construction work would begin soon.

 “The Posco India project is on the right track and I expect the work would start soon,” Mr Patnaik said.

The Rs 52, 000-crore steel project has been delayed by several years. The Odisha government and Posco India had signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the project in June, 2005. The first phase of the production was supposed to be started in 2011.

The project was delayed as the local villagers led by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti protested displacement for the industrial project.

After the lapse of the original MoU on June 21, 2010, it was decided to sign a tripartite agreement involving the Odisha government, Posco India and its parent firm- South Korean steel behemoth Posco. However, that has not taken place as yet.

Odisha launches automated GPF service for govt employees

By Our Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Oct. 6: Odisha has launched automated its General Provident Fund (GPF) service along with the Push SMS system for its government employees, thus becoming first state in the county to provide the beneficiaries latest updates on their accounts without any hassles.
According to officials, the automation service will benefit nearly two lakh state government employees whose GPF accounts are managed by the Accountant General (AG) of Odisha.
“The officials will now be able to check their GPF status online, just like they browse details of their bank accounts,” Jugal Kishore Mohapatra, state chief secretary, said while launching the GPF automation system with Push SMS here on Saturday.
 The software was planned by the AG Odisha with technical inputs from National Informatics Centre (NIC), NIC, Bhubaneswar.
The chief secretary said the new system was step forward in the mission to achieve paperless office and would help expedite GPF transactions and make the process accurate.
State Principal Accounts General Gargi Kaul said Odisha is the first State to have both the GPF e-statement and SMS push system.
“All the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) must take up the e-scheduling on time so that e-statement and Push SMS can serve the subscribers of GPF.  Till now, the office of the AG of Odisha was issuing the GPF account statement to subscribers annually through the respective DDOs. The employees had to wait till the end of the year to know the exact GPF position,” Mr Kaul said.
Now, employees can instantly check their balance position and all that they have to do is log on to the official website of AG, Odisha http://www.agodisha.gov.in. Besides, they can also point out any omission or mistake to the AG office for quick settlement, she added.
The system has also provision for registration of mobile numbers of subscribers through which they can get their monthly updates through SMS. Any subscription or withdrawal made from the GPF account will send an SMS alert to the subscriber. To avail the system, the employees, however, will have to get themselves registered through their respective drawing disbursal officers (DDOs).
Finance secretary Upendra Nath Behera said Odisha was ahead in different areas of e-governance and this is another significant step towards transparent GPF management.
Deputy Director General of NIC, Bhubaneswar SK Panda and Technical Director RN Behera spoke about technical details of the system. NIC has previously developed software for other administrative departments.

North Odisha lawyers call for bandh on Monday to press for HC bench demand

By Sibdas Kundu

Balasore, Oct. 6: After Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik recommended the Centre last month for setting up two permanent benches of the high court in western and southern parts of the state, lawyers from the North Odisha region who have been making the similar demand, on Sunday decided to intensify their agitation.

The lawyers have given dawn-to-dusk Mayurbhanj bandh call on Monday.

Mayaurbhanj happens to be major district the South Odisha, bordering West Bengal in the north and Jharkhand in the west.

Stating that the recommendation was politically motivated, the lawyers said the chief minister’s proposal to the Union government before the submission of the Pal Commission report “unethical and unjust.”

Balasore Bar Association, political parties like the Congress, BJP, JMM and Bhanj Sena, members of All India Medical Association’s district unit, District Athletic Association and District Commercial units and other organisations have also supported the bandh call.

At a high level meeting, it was unanimously decided to intensify the agitation against indifferent attitude of the state government.

An action committee has been formed with the presidents, secretaries of bar associations, members of political outfits and local volunteering organisations of Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Bhadrak and Balasore as members.

They will decide the future course of action after the Monday bandh.

Meanwhile, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Susila Tiria demanded a circuit bench of HC at Baripada. She said Congress party will support the lawyers of North Odisha in this regard.

Source: www.indusvalleytimes.com

Three fishermen killed was battery goes off

By Sudhir Ranjan DashParadip, Oct. 6: Three fishermen were killed and seven others injured when their trawler named Jaya Durga caught fire in the Bay of Bengal near Astarang in Puri district late on Saturday night.The accident, according to the survivors, took place at around 2 am due to battery explosion.“After midnight, our pilot noticed blazing fire in the rear part of the trawler. He woke me up and we tried to douse the fire. Seven of our colleagues sustained burn injuries. Three persons who were received critical burns succumbed to their injuries on board the vessel,” said Babu Ray, the co-pilot.Sources said after the vessel caught fire, the pilot alerted the trawler owner over phone. The owner then informed the India Coast Guard about the mishap.“We traced vessel after two hours of voyage and rescued the injured fishermen. There was not delay whatsoever in the operation. Night factor accounted for a little delay in locating the ill-fated trawler,” said S.K. Nath, a senior Indian Coast Guard officer.Of the seven injured, the condition of three persons are stated to be serious. They have been sent to SCB Medical College.

NINL registers highest pig iron export in H1

By Our Correspondent

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 4: Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), a joint venture between Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC) and Odisha government located Kalinga Nagar in Odisha’s Jajpur district, has achieved another milestone by exporting 2,25,891 tonnes of pig iron in the first half of the current fiscal.This is the highest export figure after 2007-08 fiscal when the company had witnessed H1 export of 1, 95,473 tonnes of pig iron.NINL mainly supplies pig iron to South East Asian countries.NINL, the highest pig iron exporter in the country, had on May 31 commissioned its steel making shop.NINL recently scaled up its pig iron production after iron ore rates went up after weeks of dull trade in international markets.Sources said the public sector unit is currently getting “better” enquiries for its products.The company benefited immensely in the last couple of months by a sharp drop in rupee against the dollar.NINL produces around 5.5 million tonnes of pig iron every year. The company incurred a nearly Rs 100-crore loss in the last financial year because of poor demand for pig iron in both global and local markets.The company is jointly promoted by MMTC Ltd and the Odisha government. MMTC floats all tenders on behalf of NINL for pig iron export as well as coking coal import.