Civil body demands Nimapada IIC’s arrest

BHUBANESWAR: Demanding appropriate action against Nimapada IIC and his supporters, who helped him to flee from the clutches of Vigilance officials on January 6, the Durniti Sangharsh Manch staged dharna at the Lower PMG here on Tuesday.

It may be noted that Nimapada police station IIC Bimal Kumar Nayak’s vanishing act amidst a group of audacious supporters of the town just before he was to be arrested by the Vigilance officers after he was caught red-handed while taking bribe from a man involved in a land dispute case had raised many eyebrows as the ‘absconding’ police officer was untraceable till today.

The Manch members said the police should arrest the supporters immediately because they helped a corrupted police officer. “We are really shocked with the absconding drama and failure of police official to nab the kidnappers,” said Sudhir Mohanty of the Manch.

Fearing the police arrest, the common people who were present over there on the day of the incident to see the vigilance search, are not staying in their home, the Manch members said adding, “To arrest the culprits, the police should start an impartial investigation into the matter.”    

       

SC/ST council to file case against WR officials

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha State Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Youth and Students Council at a Press meet here on Sunday alleged that the SC and ST assistant engineers working in different departments of the State Government are being neglected by some vested officers of Water Resource Department. They decided to file criminal case against WR officials for violating reservation law.

The members of the SC-ST youth council said the engineers recruited through OPSC on regular mode since 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007 were not enlisted in the cadre list of Assistant Engineers with ill-intention. The officials taking bribe from general category validated engineers intentionally to debar the SC and STs from their genuine claim of promotion since long, they added.

President of the council Haldhar Sethy alleged that the officials of WR Department by changing the SC/ST officials from establishment wing intentionally held up the process of fresh recruitment of contractual engineers for remaining backlog vacancies out of the select list so prepared in the year 2009, even after the order of the Chief Minister.

The council condemned that the anti - SC/ST attitude of the officials of WR Department who are regularly violating the reservation law as well as the service law meant for Odisha. The council has also drawn the attention of the National Commission for SC/ST who has responded the cause proposing state review meeting in the 1st week of March this year.

             

Pay Rs 1,000 for staging dharna at PMG

BHUBANESWAR: From February 21, the social and political organisations along with NGOs and activists or who will want to stage dharna to press their demand before the Government they have to pay Rs 1,000 to get permission for staging dharnas, agitations and rallies at the Dharna place of Lower PMG in the city, according to a notification by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).

From Tuesday onwards, staging dharna at the Lower PMG will not be free. The respective organisations would have to take permission from the Police Commissionerate’s Office and a license from the BMC office by paying Rs 1,000. The defaulters of this notification will be imposed with fine.

According to the BMC Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, the fees will be used for the development of the Dharna place including its cleaning and to avail other facilities within the zone. The Dharna place is polluted with the unwanted materials thrown by agitators and to clean the area needs manpower and vehicles for which we need the money to appoint sweepers for cleaning the place.

But the social activists and different political and social organisations have opposed the decision taken by the BMC. Every people have fundamental rights to protest and imposing fine and monetary constraint on that is undemocratic, said some social activists of the city.

“This decision seems as Mughal emperor Aurangjev’s Jizyah tax which was imposed on Hindus, now this Jizyah tax by BMC on the poor exploited those are deprived of their basic right come to the Lower PMG square to air their demands and grievances before the Assembly, which is ridiculous,” said president of Odisha unit of Samajwadi Party Rabi Behera demanding withdrawal of the decision.

 

          

Juangas demand mother tongue based pre-school education

BHUBANESWAR: Members of the Juanga Child Protection Committee (JCPC) organised pre-election meetings inviting contestants of panchayat election to support their demand of mother tongue based pre-school education.

Hundreds of Juanga women and men gather in the pre-election meetings to press their demands to support their claim of quality education for their children. For the first time the voters have organised pre-election meetings to press their demands among the contestants and seeking their commitment to the development needs as articulated by the adivasi communities instead of accepting the offers like free booze and money for group feasts from the contestants here.

About 12 pre-election interaction meetings were being organised between voters and candidates in the area. On 16th of February an open forum discussion was organised at Tala Champei in ‘Juangapidhi’ by the members of Child Right Protection Committee of TLC where the aspiring candidates were invited to clear their stand on the reasonable demands by the Juanga community members including the demand for mother tongue based early childhood education in the Anganwadi centers in the area.

The member of the Child Right Protection Committee and Founder Member of CLAP Bhaktabatshal Mohanty highlighted the need of mother tongue based education to the children below the age of 5years as it is easy for the children to learn in their own language. Kainta Juanga, a Juaga woman, stressed the need going by the fact that most of the parents are not literate in Odia language and find it difficult to support their children in their studies.

Speaking to the aspiring candidates Programme Manager of TLC Bhagirathi Mohanty stressed that once the Juanga verbal language get adopted in the local Anganwadi Centers the children of the area would feel at home while enabling their learning potentials. This would help them feel confident and improve their reasons which would ultimately help them continue their education in any language during later stage, he ended.

Capital city gears up for Mahashivratri

BHUBANESWAR: Like every year, devotees of the Lord Shiva are getting ready for much awaited to observe the religious occurrence Mahashivratri, as all the Hindu devotees especially Shaibas believe the Lord Shiva is the harbinger of happiness and good luck. The State is geared up for the festival and preparation of all the Shaiba shrines have been completed till Sunday evening.

The famous and one of the major Shaiba shrines Lingaraj temple in the capital city also geared up for the occasion. Keeping eye on the heavy flow of devotees from the city and also from other parts of the State, security arrangement have taken place in a strategic way. Commissionerate police along with private security guards will be deployed in the temple area to control the huge crowd on the day of Shivratri.

According to the Lingaraj temple administrator Abanikant Patnaik, 14 CCTV cameras were fixed in the temple to keep eye on the movement of the crowd and other security measures. Special security arrangement from the police will help the devotees to get hassle free darshan of Lord Shiva in the temple, he added. Apart from that this year the pious Mahadeep will be rose between 9.30 pm and 10 pm night on Monday.

Besides Lingaraj temple in Temple City, the famous Shaiva shrines like Loknath temple of Puri, Aaradi of Bhadrak, Kapilash of Dhenkanal, Dhabaleswar of Athagarh, Gupteswar of Koraput and other shrines have taken special arrangements for the devotees.

GRP arrest mastermind of chain snatcher gang

BHUBANESWAR: Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested a mastermind of a chain snatcher gang, who snatch gold chains from the running train, from Mali Sahi in the city on Sunday while he was selling the gold chain.

On a tip off, GRP team reached Mali Sahi and nabbed the chain snatcher mastermind Ramachandra Behera alias Susant, a resident of Nuapada under Madhupatna police station in Cuttack district. According to the IIC of GRP Bhubaneswar Smruti Ranjan Kar, Susant was involved in a chain snatching case of February 7, 2012. He had snatched a gold chain from Shantilata Rath, wife of Durga Madhav Rath, when they were going by a passenger train from Bhubaneswar.

Besides the case, 14 chain snatching cases were in the name of the culprit. During their raid in Mali Sahi, Susant was selling a gold chain. The police arrested and seized a gold chain from his purse, but his associate escaped from the police, IIC Kar informed.        

Lingaraj temple servitor critical in attack

BHUBANESWAR: Bhagaban Samartha, a servitor of Lingaraj temple, was seriously attacked by some unidentified miscreants at Old Town in the city when he was plucking flower from a garden near cemetery on Sunday afternoon. His condition was critical and under treatment in the SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack.

Samartha was seriously attacked with the help of sharp weapons. Miscreants attacked him from back side as a deep injury mark found from his neck. Besides, his hands and belle have deep injury marks, doctors said.

He was rushed to a medical in the city then he was referred to the SCB Medical College and Hospital for further treatment. According to the doctors, his was still not out of danger and his condition was critical.

Family members of Samartha said that they have no knowledge about the miscreants, but it was a conspiracy, they informed. He was a temple servitor and he had an important role to play during Shivratri in Lingaraj temple, they added. Airfield police is investigating into the matter and none is arrested in the case.