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| Bhubaneswar, April 29: Yesterday’s cyclonic storm (Nargis) over Bay of Bengal remained almost stationary today and lay centred 650km south of Orissa’s coastal town of Gopalpur and was likely to intensify further before moving in a northerly direction. The severe storm now lay centred over west-central and adjoining south-west and south-east Bay of Bengal, 650km south of Gopalpur, said Met department sources. The system is likely to intensify further and move slowly in a northerly direction for sometime. Thereafter it is likely to move north-east, said director of Bhubaneswar meteorology centre, S.C. Sahoo. “The system has remained stationary and we are closely monitoring it,” said Sahoo. Latest radar observation indicates that thundershower accompanied with squall and hail with maximum wind speed reaching between 60 and 70kmph are likely to affect parts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Nowrangpur, Raygada, Kalahandi, Gajapati, Phulbani, Bhadrak, Balasore, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Khurda and Cuttack by 9pm today. “Rain or thundershower is likely to occur at isolated places over the state. The cyclone warning centre of the Met department has hoisted distant signal number-2 for storm warning at Paradip and Gopalpur ports,” he added. |
Nargis remains strong
CENTRAL ASSISTANCE UNDER SGSY TO FOUR STATES
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Project lying defunct, farming hit
Friday April 4 2008 13:32 IST
ENS
PHULBANI: Agriculture has been badly hit in the district in the absence of adequate irrigation infrastructure. Quite a few minor irrigation projects (MIP) are lying defunct due to lack of maintenance creating dissatisfaction among the farmers.
Kakalbadi MIP in G.Udaygiri block of Kandhamal district is one of them. The construction work for the project was started in 1971 and it became functional in 1982 with a provision to irrigate 600 hectares of land. Later the area of irrigation was reduced to 486 ha. However, farmers of the area alleged that less then 100 acres of land are getting irrigated by this project due to the non-maintenance and filling up the canal by the sliding of earth. The canals are now crammed with waste plants. Due to mud and earth deposition, the water containing capacity of the dam has also been reduced.
Farmers alleged that last Rabi season paddy cultivated in about 90 acres was ruined due to non-supply of water from the project. As the minor irrigation authorities are not providing any incentives to the pani panchayat which was formed for the project, the panchayat is also not functioning properly, alleged James Mallick, sarpanch of Mallickpadi panchayat. Phulbani MIP Executive Engineer G P Prusty said to repair the Kakalbadi project Rs 10 to 15 lakh is required and in this financial year the amount will be arranged.
SC paves way for church riot relief
| SAMANWAYA RAUTRAY | ||
New Delhi, April 7: The Supreme Court today cleared the way for the church to help out Christians affected by rioting and arson in Orissa’s Khandhamal district in December last year, by staying an order passed by the district collector disallowing any charitable or religious NGOs from providing relief to them. “District collector’s order stayed…high court order upholding it stayed...,” a two-judge bencc comprising Justices H.K. Sema and Markandey Katju, said. The district collector had passed an order on January 11 directing that no charitable or religious NGOs be allowed to carry out any relief work in the affected areas. The order threatened action under the CrPC and IPC against those violating the directive. The archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, Raphael Cheenath, challenged the order in the Orissa High Court which refused to intervene. The collector defended his order before the high court on the ground that religious institutions and NGOs only carry out relief operations among a particular community which might create ill feeling among people of other communities disturbing peace and harmony. “The situation is already very delicate and any such instance may further lead to a flare-up in communal tension and in that situation it would be difficult for the administration to maintain peace and therefore he (the collector) had appealed to all religious institutions and NGOs not to carry out any relief operation in any particular community on their own,” the high court had said refusing to exercise its power of judicial review. The archbishop came to the apex court in appeal against the high court order. In his appeal, the archbishop stated that even though it was over three months since the outbreak of violence in the area, the state government was yet to announce any relief or rehabilitation package for the affected people. He said even in the few cases compensation had been paid, the maximum was a measly Rs 10,000 — which was inadequate and did not cover even a fraction of the losses suffered. Very few people had received even that compensation, he said. Only three relief camps had been set up so far, he claimed. “Out of these, two were closed. The condition in the remaining was awful without proper food, drinking water or medicines. Two persons had died in the relief camp on January 15 due to lack of medical attention,” Cheenath claimed. He alleged that he was prevented from distributing relief material mobilised from among the Christian community to the affected people as also to reconstruct churches and houses that were destroyed. “The attitude of the state government is most unreasonable in that it has not constructed a single house and has given compensation and a few blankets to a handful of victims only to make a pretence that some relief is being provided,” he said. |
Victims of communal violence suffer without rehabilitation
Statesman News Service
BHUBANESWAR, April 1: Those living in relief camps in Kandhamal district after the recent communal violence are leading a miserable life as the state government stopped relief operations on 15 March and is not allowing the NGOs for rehabilitation effort, said Right Reverend Dr. Samson Das, Bishop, Diocese of Cuttack here today.
Das was a part of the five-member delegation of Church of North India, who visited the trouble-torn Barakhamba to have a first-hand experience of the lives of the affected ones.
Addressing the press here today, he highlighted the plight of the people and said that much more needs to be done to get them to their earlier lives.
The government has stopped providing its own relief from 15 March and from that time, is supplying the affected with relief material collected from outer agencies like Red Cross and Delhi-based Eficor among others, Dr. Das said and expressed that this might not suffice.
‘We understand that the government may have stopped its arrangements as per official regulation like provision of relief for a certain period, but the alternative arrangement is of equal importance’, he further added and suggested that a number of our agencies, NGOs, organizations like theirs are ready to help.
“If the government fears the intention of the outer agencies, it should ensure the agencies function under close watch of its officers”, he suggested.
Hundreds of women and children live in misery and only government-sponsored help can serve little, he opined.
“We plan to call on the chief minister and request him to consider our help for the affected people. In fact, after the clash, we had called him and apprised him of the situation”, he said and pointed out that they will request the chief minister to consider the 10-point recommendation of the National Commission for Minorities including formation of one State Minorities Commission.
There is an urgent need of counseling, conflict management and social re~engineering, he suggested.