Minister’s health is stable, not out of danger: Doctor

BHUBANESWAR: “The minister Maheswar Mohanty's condition is stable but not out of danger. He has to remain under observation for the next 72 hours. CT scan of his head was held but again a CT scan will be held,” said Chief Administrative Officer of Kalinga Hospital to the reporters.

Besides the chief minister, different party MLAs and MPs including MP Prasanna Patsani and NCP MLA Amar Satpathy visited Kalinga hospital on Wednesday to enquire about the health condition of the minister.

The minister sustained head injury at Alandia village in Puri district when he was hit on the head allegedly by one Balabhadra Bhoi alias Mahari with an iron rod while he was addressing a panchayat poll meeting on Sunday night.

Liquor mafias attack Excise Superintendent in Ganjam

BRAHMAPUR: After few days lull, again the tussle between liquor mafias and excise officials came to limelight in Khallikote area of Ganjam district. Excise Superintendent Barendra Nath Dhal was seriously injured, when an angry mob including liquor mafias attacked the joint team of excise and police personnel, while returning after conducting a raid on the illegal liquor manufacturing units near Sourapalli of Khallikote area on Wednesday.

According to Khallikote police officials, on Wednesday morning around 6 am, a gang comprising 30 armed tribal people consisted of both male and female member from N Sourapalli, a tribal village near Khallikote, attacked the police van while returning from the raid. “While attacking the van, Dhal was in the vehicle. After breaking the glass pieces, the iron rods and stones hit Dhal and sustained injury,” said Khallikote Inspector-in-Charge SK Sethy.

He immediately rushed to the MKCG Medical College and Hospital here and the treatment is on, the police informed. The excise and police personnel seized huge quantities of country-made liquor during raids.

This was not for the first time happening in the area. During the year of 2003, 2004 and 2011, the clash between the liquor mafias and excise officials took place in Khallikote area. Earlier, some police personnel detained by the villagers at Badarampalli village near Khallikote area while busting the illegal liquor manufacturing units.

On December 9 last year, seven excise and police personnel were injured and six government vehicles damaged in tribals attack at Guhariapata in the district. Similar incident was taken place at Ganjam's Landajuali, where three police personnel including the Inspector in-Charge of Gangapur police station attacked by the villagers on January 8 recently.

2 day 3D chalk painting-sand sculpture Jugalbandi at Puri Beach from Feb 4

BHUBANESWAR: A Jugalbandi of 3D Chalk Painting - Sand Sculpture is going to be organised jointly by US Consulate General, Hyderabad and Odisha Tourism at Puri Beach near Panthanivas, Puri on 4th and 5th February, 2012.

The Jugalbandi will be between, the World renowned 3D Chalk Painting artiste Ms Tracy Lee Stum from USA and Odisha's best known International Sand Artist Sudarsan Pattnaik.

Tracy Lee Stum is an internationally recognized American street painter who specializes in spectacular, interactive 3d chalk street paintings and holds a Guinness World Record for the largest street painting by an individual.

The theme is related to environment protection and sends out message to keep beach clean and green through the images of dolphins and turtles, both animals intrinsic to Odisha's rich wildlife. While Tracy will be doing the chalk painting, Sudarsan's team will create a continuation of the image in sand

In this connection permission of State Election Commission, Odisha has already been obtained. Odisha Tourism will be associated with this event for publicizing it through Media Advt. (both print & electronic), hoardings, and other logistic arrangements like ambience lighting, security etc.

The event will attract more weekend crowd to Puri while acting as a platform to send out a strong message for protecting our environment.

It has also been planned to invite students from local schools to witness the event and involve local NGO Barefoot in the activities who can talk about the ill-effects ol pollution on the animal and plant life in the sea.

Lee will also do on-the-spot workshops with local school / art students

Odia language in Govt office from Feb

BHUBANESWAR: In all the districts of the State, Odia language will be used as official language very soon. Even the language of root chart of the town bus in the city and hoardings of the Commissionerate Police will be in Odia language. It will effect from the month of February of the current year, informed the Director of Odia Bhasha Partisthan Dr Harihar Kanungo here on Tuesday.

Steps are also taken for recommendation of Odia language as classic. Department of Culture has sanctioned Rs 2 lakh for the project initiated by the Odia Bhasha Pratisthan. It will also submit reports for classical recommendation of Odia language before the Bhasha Pratisthan of Government of India.

“Medium of the Government official works including files, noting and documents will be Odia language in all the districts of the State very soon, where English language was used before,” said Kanungo.

It may be noted that last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that all officials work in the State Secretariat will be done in Odia instead English and other languages. A high-level meeting in this regard held at State Secretariat chaired by the then Chief Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra.

KIIT to organize 8th ICDCIT from 1st Feb

BHUBANESWAR: The 8th ICDCIT (International Conference on Distributed Computing and Internet Technology) will be organised by KIIT University during 1– 4 February 2012. During this period several events like Paper presentations, Invited Talks, Industry Symposium,  2nd Student Research Symposium and First Student “Project Innovation Contest” -2012 (PIC-2012) will be organised.

ICDCIT was established in 2004, and since then the conference series has become a platform for Computer Science researchers from India and all over the world to exchange research results and ideas on the foundations and applications of Distributed Computing and Internet Technologies. Increasingly, such technologies enable individuals and organisations to jointly engage in the production, processing and dissemination of knowledge. Like the last seven editions, the proceedings have been published by Springer in the series of Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

Two Maoists arrested from Bisra

ROURKELA: During a search operation, Bisra police along with one unit of District Volunteer Force (DVF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Tuesday arrested two Maoists from a jungle near Bisra area. They were identified as Birbal Gudia (23) son of Gopal Gudia of Tirliposh and Chandradeb Tirkey (24) alias Charo son of Jero Tirkey from Dumlai, under Jareikela police station of West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand.

Basing on intelligence input regarding movement of Maoists in Bisra area, the joint forces conducted a search operation in the Bisra police station area on Tuesday afternoon. During search operation, the police found a Scorpio car was found standing on Bisra-Barsuan Road. Then the team proceeded towards the vehicle for verification. While proceeding towards the vehicle, two persons ran away into the jungle from the vehicle. The police team chased and apprehended that two persons.

While interrogation, they confessed before the police that they had exploded the Jareikala Police outpost, Tehasil office of Bisra and Bondamunda Railway Cabin under the leadership of Anmol Hembram alias Samarjee. On January 9 last year the Maoists namely Prasanta, Mechhu, Mohamed Muslim, Sameer Xalxo, Jametian, William and 80 to 100 others including above mentioned Maoists armed with different fire arms and other lethal weapons came to Jareikela and blasted the police outpost under Bisra police station. They also confessed that they have involved in more other cases of Odisha and Jharkhand States.

Home guard dies as police Jeep turns turtle

BHUBANESWAR: A homeguard was killed and other four policemen sustained injuries in a road Mishap at Pahala on NH-5 here in the wee hours on Monday. The deceased was identified as Prasanta Kumar Sahu, a homeguard in the Balianta police station.

While a team of five policemen of Balianta police station boarded in a Jeep were patrolling in Pahal area, an unidentified vehicle rammed the police Jeep from its back side. The Jeep turned turtle and the homeguard died on the spot. Two others were identified as Ajay Rout and Jitendra Khuntia of OSAP.

They were rushed to the Capital Hospital immediately. They were reportedly out of danger and the investigation is going on, informed the Balianta Inspector-in-Charge Sanjay Kumar Patnaik.

It may be noted that a similar accident was taken place on July 4 last year, where a home guard Bamdev Nayak was killed and other police officers were injured when a truck hit the police vehicle from its backside, while patrolling in the Pahala area in the wee hours of night.