DM conducts review meeting on health

DM conducts review meeting on health

….. DM directs to speedup the issue of birth certificate in the district

Chatrapur: Issue of birth certificate will speedup now onwards in Ganjam. Within few hours after the delivery of the baby, the certificate will be issued, District Magistrate Dr Kishan Kumar directed in the review meeting organized in the conference hall of the District Magistrate of Ganjam on Wednesday.

Now the birth certificate will be issued with the cheque of Rs 1400 to the rural women and Rs 1000 to urban women in the scheme of Janani Suraksha Yojana. The work of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in the district was reviewed in the meeting.

There are 50354 women were involved in the NRHM scheme for the financial year 2010-11. Ganjam district demanded 12 crore in NRHM scheme last year, but it got 2 crore 65 lakh only. This money was used for the construction and repairing of 12 building from which the work of five buildings are under construction.

Among others, CDMO of Ganjam Dr Ratnakar Behera, Engineer Simanchala Maharana, Pradeep Das, Rajendra Nayak, DTS Manas Khara were present in the review meeting.

Summer storm hits Berhampur

Summer storm hits Berhampur

…..Man dies in lightning

Berhampur: A sudden summer storm and thundersquall wreaked havoc in the city and its outskirts areas on Thursday.

A farmer was died when lightning struck him while he was returning from his field on Thursday. He was identified as Laxman Sethi(46) of Satakutuni village under Rangeilunda block. Sethi along with his two bullocks were died in the spot.

Electricity supply was also disrupted for long hours as several poles were uprooted and live wire snapped at many places after tree branches fell down on them.

“We have received report of one casuality and death of two animals. There were no more casuality in the town”, said Berhampur Tehsildar Satrughna Kar.

Wind accompanied by torrential rains blew off thatched houses of several areas near Berhampur. These are Ankuli, Antei, Ankushpur, Burukudi, Bendalia, Kammapalli, Lathi, Nimakhandi and Sukunda.

Potagarh fort in Orissa to get facelift

Potagarh fort, which stands as a mute witness to the vicissitudes of history in Orissa, is all set to get a facelift following the state government's decision to make it a major tourist destination.

About 350-year-old historic forts would be restored, conserved and made a heritage tourism destination under the World Bank funded Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP), a senior official of the ICZMP said.

A special team of World Bank and support joint mission led by Tapas Paul along with the project officials from West Bengal and Gujarat visited the heritage site recently.

The team also visited Tampara, a wetland near Chhatrapur which would be developed as an eco-tourism centre through the project and Sana Nolianuagaon, a fishermen village in the district.

"Besides restoration and conservation, the site would be developed as a major tourist destination as part of the ICZMP," according to project director A K Pattanaik.

Besides Potagarh and the British Cemetery near Ganjam town, seven other heritage sites are to be developed. The other sites are Baba Kundaleswar temple of Manikapatna, Baliharichandi temple near Puri, Hariharadeva temple, Nairi, Bateswara temple, Kantiagada (Ganjam), Jagannath temple, Pentha and Jamboo Colonial Building, Kendrapara.

About Rs7.41 crore would be spent in five years to develop the sites for heritage tourism, sources said. The team members appreciated steps taken by ICZMP-Orissa to conserve the monuments and to develop them as tourist spots by involving cultural and tourism departments as executing agencies.

Potagada, built in 1768 as a star-shaped fort, is surrounded by a wide and deep moat. It's strongly built earthen rampart is about 15-feet high, 92-metre long and 19-metre wide. The fort was built underground and one could not see it from a distance. "The fort was built in this shape to protect it from invaders," noted historian Shishir Kumar Panda of Berhampur University said.

The main gate of the fort was ruined. However, the gate on the other side was found almost intact.

Within the fort, there are office buildings, magazine, artillery, armoury, store, custom houses etc. The destructive flood of river Rushikulya in 1990 caused considerable damage to the fort.

The ICZM project is being implemented in Orissa with a financial outlay of Rs227.60 crore on a pilot basis to protect the coastal belt and to improve the socio-economic development of coastal people.

BU declares BBA and BCA result

BU declares BBA and BCA result

….Disha in BBA and Roland in BCA topped the list

Berhampur: Berhampur University declared the BBA and BCA result on Wednesday. L. Ranjita Patro of Disha College became the university topper while Lipsa Khadanga of the same college got third rank in the toppers list. Apart from them, another six students of the college are in the top-twenty list. They are Santosh Patro (11), S. Priyadarshini Patro (12), G. Ompriya((13), Laxmikanta Moharana(14), Debashish Tripathy(17), Debadatta Tripathy(18). In BBA, the result of the college is 95 percent this year. Disha Director Dinesh Mishra and other lectures are happy with the results of this year.

Like that, B Priti Raju of Roland Institute declared as the university topper in BCA and other three of same college are in top-twenty list, they are CH Sabnam Patro(3), Monalisha Nanda (8), and Shradha Srota Sahu(9). The college scored 100 percent first class result like previous year. Director Dr J Suriya Rao, J Jayalaxmi, Principal Professor Ranganath Mishra, Vice-Principal Proffessor Sunil Kumar Samantray and other other lectures congratulated the students for the success.

NDRF holds awareness camp

Hemanta Kumar Pradhan

Berhampur: National Disaster Respond Force (NDRF) organized an awareness programme on Tuesday to sensitise the coastal people about the precautionary steps to tackle at the time of natural calamity in different parts of the coastal blocks of Ganjam.

There are 36 CISF jawans of third battalion; Cuttack under the leadership of Inspector Bijendra Singh visited the cyclone-prone area Chatrapur, Ganjam, Rangeilunda and Chikiti block of Ganjam district under the guidance of Deputy Commandant Dillip Kumar.

While visiting, the CISF officials taught the valuable tricks of disaster management and how to tackle the situation at the time of cyclone, earthquake and flood. They also taught about how to save own life as well as others, use of cyclone shelter, migrate from lower to higher place and the use of first aid. Along with this, the jawans demonstrated some war tricks through mock drill.

The jawans covered 15 coastal villages. These are Kanamana, Matikhala, Upulaputi, Bada Arjeepalli, Nolia Nuagaon, Agasti Nuagaon and Haripur of Chatrapur block, Kantiagada, Binchanapalli, Purunabandha, Arunapur, Prayagi and Sipakuda of Ganjam block and Chandanabada of Chikiti block in first phase.

The next camp will be held in Tulu village of Rangeilunda block on May 26. After completion of the camp they will hand over the report to the District Magistrate about the data and road map collected from different people at the time of training and awareness programme, said Dillip Kumar.

CPI (M) to hold ‘Jail bharo’ movement in Ganjam

Hemanta Kumar Pradhan

Berhampur: Communist Party of India Marxist CPI (M) is going to organise a district-wise ‘jailbharo’ movement against the anti-people and anti-labour policy of the Government on May 26, 27, 28 in different parts of Ganjam, the home district of chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

The central Government as well as the state is involved in the rampant corruption, major scams and mega scandals during its rulling. The major part of revenue is pick-pocketed by the leaders of the rulling party. The bureaucrats with other government employees are also digesting the money from various plans. The common people are suffering from the side-effects of corruption made by the politicians and government officials. The poor becomes poorer and the rich becomes very rich due to the anti-people policies by the government. To fight against this, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists have planned up to hold ‘Jail bharo’ movement in Ganjam on May 26, 27, 28 in front of the Sub-collector offices of the sub-divisions namely Bhanjanagar, Chatrapur, Berhampur respectively, informed CPI (M) state secretariat member Ali Kishore Patnaik on Sunday in a News Conference organized by the party.

The crop loss in Ganjam district was very huge, about 60% of the crop from each block was damaged due to untimely rain at the time of harvesting, but Govt. declared to give financial assistance to eight blocks only, which is a matter of concern. In other side, the victim family of the farmer, who committed suicide due to crop loss are not properly compensated, alleged CPI (M).

Patnaik demanded before the government to increase the daily wage of menial labourers from Rs 90 per day to Rs 200 per day although there was no hesitation to hike the salaries of MLAs to 60,000. Along with the wage, the Government should include all the poor peoples in BPL and APL scheme and provide 35 Kg of 2-a-Kg rice per month.

The other issues include distribution of land to landless, enhancement of pension to the aged, widows and physically challenged will be highlighted during the agitation.

During the protest demonstrations party activists would court arrest, said the party leaders in the conference. The conference was attended by the CPI (M) party leaders with workers of the district and it was coordinated by Secretary of Ganjam CPI (M) committee, Kalu Panda.

Labana Shramiks demand land rights

Ganjam: Labana Shramiks (salt labourers) of Humma under Ganjam block of Ganjam district demonstrated in front of the office of Salt Superintendent of Ganjam for the fulfillment of their demands on Tuesday here.

The Labana Shramik Sangha (Salt Labourers Organisation) demanded that they are not getting adequate wage, government subsidies and not benefitted by the Government schemes. Last year, untimely heavy rain hit the production of salt as well as washed away the salt due to lack of storage system. So they need a proper storage system with marketing facilities.

Hundreds of farmers set out a rally towards the office of salt superintended by chanting the slogan ‘palaka jahara, Abora tahara’ , the farm is ours , as our own salt-gather-stick. Mostly, the salt farms are operated by some landlords. The labourers work in the scorching heat of summer, but they are not treated as stakeholders, all the benefits go to landlords only. So they are opposing this system and demand to provide the farm land as their own.

They also demanded to provide them house in the scheme of Namak Awas Yojana, road to the village, sanitation facilities and health insurance.

The salt labourers attract the attention of the District Magistrate of Ganjam, MLA of Chatrapur and Salt Commission, Rajasthan towards the fulfilling of their demand.