Suspected Maoist nabbed, rifles seized in Ganjam

BRAHMAPUR: One suspected Maoist was arrested and a huge cache of arms were seized by the CRPF and the district police from Merikote forest area under Sorada block in Ganjam district during a combing operation late on Thursday, police sources said.

The man identified as Damba Mallick of Krupagadi village under the Badagada police station in the district was taken in custody on the suspicion of being a Maoist when the CRPF patrol unit was combing the area, sources added.

According to CRPF official sources, three INSAS rifles, two bolt action guns, 119 rounds of ammunition, four live magazines of INSAS and three other such bullet cases along with 10 kg of iron splinter used for making IEDs were recovered from the Adi-anga-Sorada area during a joint combing operation by the CRPF and the Ganjam police on Thursday. The seized arms and ammunition have been handed over to the local police, sources in the CRPF added.

Police sources said the arms were possibly looted from the police or security forces.

AIIMS to be inaugurated formally on Feb 26

BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad will formally inaugurate the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Bhubaneswar on February 26, informed its director Prof Ashok Mohapatra.

“Besides the Union Minister, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will also grace the occasion,” Mohapatra said adding preparations for the day are nearing completion.

According to official sources, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was earlier scheduled to dedicate the health institute to public, but it was changed at the last moment.

The premier medical institute of the State built over an area of 1,25,000 square metre have three operation theatres (OTs), a recovery ward, four high dependant units, a 10-bed ICU along with 150 beds spanning different specialities.

Free, fair election to strengthen democracy: National Election Watch

BHUBANESWAR: “The political parties should not use money and muscle power to derail the process of free and fair election during the fast approaching General Election in 2014,” said representatives of the political parties while attending a State level conference on electoral and political reforms organised by the State chapter of the National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) here on Friday.    

Discussing on “Building Environment for Free and Fair Elections 2014”, senior leader of the Congress Narasingha Mishra said the ruling party should not use administrative power during election to get benefit. Most of the political leaders advocate not to cross expenditure limit set by the Election Commission of India (ECI), but it is violated by the political leaders several times, he added.

Mishra also said the voters need to be sensitised about the free and fair polls before every election. “The voters should not be biased by the political leaders for money and other gifts. They should reject the candidate who use money and muscle power to get vote,” said Mishra.

Gracing the occasion, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) State executive body member Dhanada Kanta Mishra said the country should come up with political reforms so that family raj and criminalisation in politics can be checked.

Leaders like Narendra Swain from BJD, Ashok Sahu from BJP, Kharvela Swain from Utkal Bharat, Dibakar Nayak from the Communist Party of India, Santosh Das from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and delegates of other parties attended the conference. 

Among others, former DGP AB Tripathy, former Chief Secretary Sahadev Sahoo, National Election Watch (NEW) head Anil Verma and NEW Odisha State coordinator Ranjan Mohanty participated in the discussions.             

 

Jail employees’ indefinite stir from tomorrow

BHUBANESWAR: Demanding a pay hike, more than 1800 jail employees of the State have threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike from February 22.

The jail employees have been demanding equal pay at par with the staff of the State Home Department, but the Government is yet to take any adequate step to solve the matter. Under a banner of the All Odisha Jail Employees Association (AOJEA), the employees however clarified that they would not boycott their duties.

Notably, the jail staff had earlier staged an eight-day hunger strike in December last year. They had withdrawn their agitation after being assured of a pay hike by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, but it has not been implemented so far, rued the members of the AOJEA.

Minority body demands to pass Communal Violence Bill

BHUBANESWAR: Recently formed Odisha Minority Rights Forum (OMRF) on Thursday staged a protest dharna in front of the State Assembly here demanding clearance of ‘Prevention of Communal Violence Bill’ in the Parliament.

The long awaited Bill could not be introduced in the current session of the Parliament due to strong opposition of few political parties. “If the political parties support the Bill to get passed in the Parliament, we will cast vote for them otherwise not,” said OMRF coordinator Jugal Kishore Ranjit. 

He said the Bill, if passed will become a shield of security for Dalit, Adivasis and Minority communities as it has lots of provisions of reparations and justice system. There will be adequate relief and rehabilitation measures for the victims, he added.

Ranjit said the Government officials become more accountable to their duties during communal violence. An authority at State as well as at national level will be created to monitor promotion of communal harmony, he added.

IBM officer’s missing: State to handover case to CBI

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government is going to hand over the case of the missing senior Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) official Ibrahim Sharif to the CBI, reliable sources said on Wednesday.

The decision was taken by the State Home Department in the wake of the Commissionerate Police’s failure to trace the missing officer and his wife Salma Paveen’s continuous demand for CBI probe. 

Recently, the Commissionerate Police, after ending its inquiry into the missing of Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) officer Ibrahim Sharif, has written to the State Home Department to take further steps to trace the officer.

Twin City Police Commissioner RP Sharma said the city police didn’t get any tangible information about the IBM officer. The police team has already spent more than two months outside of the State to trace the officer, but in vain.

As it is an inter-State case, Sharma said, it needs to be probed by a higher agency which has branches across the country.   

Earlier, the Union Ministry of Mines had called a meeting at the IBM head office in Nagpur on Friday last in the presence of Ministry officials and IBM officials of Kanpur and Bhubaneswar where they discussed about Ibrahim’s missing. The officials had discussed about a high-level inquiry like that by the CBI to trace the officer.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim’s wife has already demanded the State Government to recommend a CBI probe into her husband’s missing case. Even she had urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to intervene into the matter to trace out her husband.

Ibrahim, who hails from Karnataka and lived with his family at Nigam Vihar in Phase-II of Kanan Vihar in Bhubaneswar, has been untraceable after he left for his office on November 25 last year.

CM asks Maoists to return to mainstream

--4 south Odisha NACs to become municipalities

MALKANGIRI/BHUBANESWAR: During his visit to Chitrakonda in Malkangiri district on Wednesday, Chief Minster Naveen Patnaik called upon the Maoists to return to mainstream of the society by giving up violence.

“Violence is not the way of solution of any problem and there is no place for it in the democracy,” said Patnaik, adding, “The Maoists should return to the mainstream.”

While addressing the public at Chitrakonda, Patnaik announced that four Notified Area Councils (NACs) in southern Odisha, Sunabeda, Malkangiri, Koraput and Umerkote, will soon be upgraded to municipalities.

The Chief Minister also inaugurated and laid foundation stones for several developmental projects in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.