Mercury dips to 8.2 degrees in Orissa

2009-11-28 11:00:00

Parts of Orissa continued to shiver in a cold wave Saturday with Phulbani town recording a temperature of 8.2 degrees Celsius, the lowest in the state, an official said.

The cold wave forced people to stay indoors for several hours in the morning. A large number of people irrespective of their age were seen huddling around bonfires to keep themselves warm in Phulbani town, about 200 km from here, an eyewitness said.

The minimum temperature has dipped below ten degrees in several places in western parts of the state but most of the state's coastal regions remained warmer.

The towns in the western districts which recorded a temperature below ten degrees include Sambalpur 8.9, Bolangir 9.8, Sundergarh 9.9, and Bhabanipatna 9.5 degrees Celsius, an official at the Bhubaneswar meteorological office told IANS.

'The temperatures were recorded early in the morning,' he said.

The state capital Bhubaneswar however remained warmer, recording a minimum temperature of 13.9 degrees, the official said.

The coastal towns which also remained warmer were Puri, Gopalpur, Paradip, Balasore recording a minimum temperature of 17.1, 16.1, 15.2 and 14.6 degrees Celsius respectively, he said.

'Sangh parivar activists involved in Kandhamal riot' - Zee news

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Bhubaneswar: Members of the Sangh parivar were involved in the communal violence in Kandhamal which claimed at least 38 lives besides causing damage to 4640 houses, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said on Monday.

"It is learnt from investigation into the riot cases that the members of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal were involved in the violence that took place last year," Patnaik told the Assembly while replying to a question by a CPI member.

Sangh Parivar activists were arrested in this connection. Of them 85 were of the RSS and 321 members of VHP were rounded up on charge of riot. The number of Bajrang Dal workers arrested on charge of violence was 118, he said.

At least 27 persons allegedly involved in the riots were still in jails, the Chief Minister said.

He said house damage and house burning incidents were reported from at least 13 police station areas in Kandhamal.

To another question, Patnaik said the commission of inquiry probing the violence in Kandhamal after the killing of VHP leader Laxamananda Saraswati had so far received affidavits of 383 persons and examined at least 34 government officials.

Kandhamal 6th on NREGS


 

Bharat Sanchar Nigam's 3G services in Orissa by year-end

BHUBANESWAR: State-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will expand its third-generation (3G) network across Orissa by the
year-end, a senior company official said on Sunday.

BSNL launched 3G services, a mobile communications system
that enhances performance of multimedia applications, high speed mobile broadband and Internet access, in the state March 25.

Currently, the service is available in 33 urban centres in the state, said BSNL chief general manager for Orissa AN Ray.

According to him, the service will be launched in other centres by the year-end, which includes Paradip port town and district headquarters of Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Rayagada, Boudh and Phulbani.

The service will be launched in these towns in phases during the current year, he said.

'Over a period of time, other features like mobile banking and mobile commerce will be added,' Ray said, adding that all services will be available in both prepaid and postpaid platforms.

Maoists killed seer: Cop before riot panel

Bhubaneswar: Slain VHP seer, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was an obstacle for Maoists and they eliminated the leader to spread their base in Kandhamal. Former inspector-in-chare of Kotagada police station, Harekrushna Pradhan told this before the one-man judicial commission probing the seer’s assassination and the subsequent riots in Kandhamal last year.

Schism between the tribal Kandhas and Christian Panas also came to fore during the cross examination.

“The inspector also told about the conflict between Kandha and Pana communities over fake certificates. This was another reason behind the communal riots in Kandhamal,” lawyer, Ajit Pattnaik said.

Former officer-in-charge of G. Udayagiri police station, Aswini Kumar Nayak was also quizzed by the commission on Thursday.

The then circle inspector of Phulbani Sadar and former inspector-in-charge of Daringibadi would depose before the panel on Friday. The commission would visit Kandhamal for hearing from November 9 till 13.

Naveen seeks special package for irrigation in the tribal hinterland, power

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BHUBANESWAR: Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday sought a special package from the centre to provide irrigation facilities and
improve productivity of lands belonging to tribals by dovetailing various programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) etc.

Addressing the conference of chief ministers, state ministers in charge of tribal/social welfare departments on "Implementation Status of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) ACT 2006" inaugurated by Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh at New Delhi, Mr Patnaik said a host of initiatives taken by the state government to improve the lifestyle of the tribals needs to be backed up by the central assistance.

Scheduled Tribes [ST] constitute almost a quarter of the total population and Orissa has the unique distinction of having 62 different types of Scheduled Tribes including 13 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PTGs), Mr Patnaik informed the conference.

Listing out the initiatives taken by his government, Mr Patnaik said, the state had set up 1004 ST girl's hostels, provided scholarship for ST boys and girls, established 19 educational complexes in micro-project areas for promotion of girl's education among the PTGs, one B.Ed Training College in Kandhamal, and 11 Ekalavya Model Residential Schools etc.

“The State Government is also committed to establish another 5000 ST Girl's Hostels over a period of five years to provide residential facilities for five lakh ST Girls”, Mr Patnaik stated.

Chief Minister further mentioned that after the promulgation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Act), 2006, the state government had taken pro-active measures to settle the land rights (both individual and community) in favour of the tribals and other forest dwellers which they had beenoccupying/enjoying for ages without any legal record of rights.

Substantial progress has been made on implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and about 2.64 lakh cases have already been verified out of more than 3 lakh cases filed by the Tribals with the Forest Rights Committees (FRCs) as on 31st October 2009, according to Mr Patnaik. He further informed that the Gram Sabhas have approved about two lakh cases and out of which the Sub Divisional Level Committees have already approved 72,000 cases.


The District Level Committees have approved about 68,000 cases out of which Certificates of Title have been distributed to more than 55,000
cases. About 4,000 Certificates of title have been distributed among the PTGs out of about 16,000 PTG families in the State.

Admitting that it might not be enough to only confer legal rights to the tribals over the land, Mr Patnaik suggested that steps should be initiated to provide irrigation facilities and improve productivity of these lands by dovetailing various programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) etc.

Since his government has constituted a Watershed Mission to improve the productivity of rain fed lands, the centre should generously support this programme so that it can be extended to development of the lands being settled with the Tribals.

Earlier Mr Patnaik met Chairman of the 13th Finance Commission Vijay L Kelkar and lodged protest against the Centre's “denial of benefits” to the state under the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP).

Demanding a special package from the 13th Finance Commission, Mr Patnaik said though Orissa pioneered a reform programme and privatised the power distribution system in the state; it was denied the benefit of the APDRP.